Info minister goofs

The Mills administration is making frantic but unsuccessful attempts to put a spin on the ¢1.6bn scandal that has rocked the Ministry of Information, in which presidential aide Stanlislav Dogbe’s name has popped up as the culprit.

Barely 24hours after the story broke and generated impassioned debate across the country, Information Minister John Akologu Tia issued a statement denying the matter.

Though he claimed the money was received and had been used for its intended purposes, he could not provide any documentary evidence to justify how it was expended.

DAILY GUIDE has learnt that auditors are finding it difficult to close the account of the Information Ministry because of the inability to retire the ¢1.6bn cash received for the supposed 2010 budget public education.

Instead, the Minister described DAILY GUIDE’s publication as false in spite of the fact that Stan himself has admitted that the money was expended on hampers and workshops for some journalists including the Institute for Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ).

However, IFEJ President, Lloyd Evans who doubles as Business Editor of Daily Graphic, has denied Stan’s claim that the Ministry sponsored the group’s programmes.

Speaking on Joy FM yesterday, Mr. Evans explained that IFEJ’s programmes had never received financial support from the Information Ministry as had been suggested.

He added that not even the budget seminar they had with the Ministry was supported by the Ministry. He explained that it was the World Bank that had been supporting the group’s programmes.

Mr. Evans has since dared Mr. Dogbe and the Ministry to come out and tell Ghanaians when and how they sponsored any of their programmes.

In his statement, Mr. Tia described DAILY GUIDE’s story as baseless, unfounded and without merit “as available records here indicate that the said fund was used for the intended purpose and the project account is awaiting validation by external auditors”, saying “indeed, Mr. Dogbe was not in charge of disbursing the fund.”

It is therefore not clear why the Minister and his Ministry are not putting out the facts and figures about how the money was used and exactly which individuals and institutions it was expended on during the said public education campaign on the 2010 budget.

Also, the Ministry said it found it unfortunate that even after Mr. Dogbe provided DAILY GUIDE with details of his role and what he knew about the campaign, the paper went ahead to suggest that he personally carried out those activities and handled its allocated funds, stressing “it is even more absurd when the newspaper claimed that the money was spent on Christmas hampers.”

Interestingly, that was exactly what Stan told DAILY GUIDE when he was contacted on the story before its publication. The tape of the interview is available if the minister would need a copy.

As Minister for Information, John Tia wondered why the reporter and the newspaper did not contact his office on the allegations though he was not the Minister at the time.

The Minister, a journalist before going into politics, blamed some disgruntled staff of the Ministry for packaging the story for DAILY GUIDE, confirming that all is not well with the staff of the Information Ministry, particularly the directors.

He failed to acknowledge the fact that DAILY GUIDE spoke to Zita Okaikoi, the Minister at the time who declined to comment on the issue. That notwithstanding, John Tia, a former correspondent of the Ghana News Agency, said the Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), Nee Agiri Barnor, has not been sidelined, saying “we have and will continue to work effectively with staff of the Department”, insisting that “the Minister believes in teamwork and has been sparing no effort at building an efficient and effective team to manage government’s communication.”