Government cars vanish from garages

Some government vehicles which were clandestinely driven to garages and parked supposedly for repairs in the wake of the transition have been removed from the garages.

This apparently follows calls by the public to some local radio stations that some government officials were hiding their official vehicles at some places.

The vehicles include four wheel drives and double cabin pick-ups.

Times investigations revealed that some government officials and politicians had also parked their vehicles in residences, removed the tyres and put them on stones.

Some of the vehicles the Times located in some residences include a four-wheel Nissan Patrol Landcruiser with registration number GV 8892C belonging to the Environmental Protection Agency and a Mitsubishi Four wheel pick up with registration number GV2171 C.

The others are a TATA four-wheel drive pick up with registration GE 2071L belonging to NADMO, and a new Nissan bus with registration number GV 750 R belonging to the Ministry of Health.

There are also vehicles whose number plates had been removed but were identified by their drivers as belonging to the state.

Mr Yakubu Abugri, a concerned citizen, says considering what is happening, the government should, as a matter of urgency, establish regional and district assets committees to locate and all retrieve government property.

He said he was convinced that records of such vehicles could be ascertained from the ministries and the office of the Chief of Staff in Accra.

Hitherto, he said, such vehicles were kept on stones and later auctioned at give-away prices to the officials who arrange with the Chief of Staff's office thus creating artificial shortage of official vehicles in those ministries and departments.

The outgoing Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Women and Children's Affairs, Ms Paulina Abayaye, whose Nissan Pick-up with registration number GV 2171 C was found parked in another house away from her residence, claimed that because she was travelling to Accra, the driver decided to pack it in a walled house 500 metres away from her residence to avoid it being stolen.

Ms Abayaye is proceeding on transfer and has handed over to her successor.

The other heads of department, whose vehicles were found in garages, could not be reached for their explanations.