President Kufuor, asked to fight corruption
The Daily Dispatch newspaper says it has chanced upon a scheme that is supposed to siphon about US$6 million (56.4 billion cedis) of State funds to three leading members of the Government.
“There is a case in court which an individual is claiming millions of US dollars from an arm of government for wrongful demolition. The lawyers of that agency have admitted liability and instead of the amount the aggrieved party is seeking, they have decided to add US$6 million to the amount being sought as compensation.”
According to the paper, there were credible indications that the extra US$6 million would be deducted from the amount and shared among certain leading members of the Government.
The newspaper said it had forwarded to the appropriate agencies, details of scheme and reminded the Government and President Kufuor of the promise to fight corruption as one of the political ‘planks’ that brought the New Patriotic Party to power in 2001.
It said six months after being sworn in, President Kufuor had his first test when his Minister of Youth and Sports, Mallam Yusif Isa was found to have willfully caused the loss of US$ 46,000 to the State.
President Kufuor did not interfere when the case went to court and Mallam Isa was jailed. He was granted an amnesty and released from prison with other prisoners.
Since then, the newspaper said members of Government had always asked stake holders especially the media to provide evidence of cases of corruption which were about to take place or had occurred.
The Dispatch pointed out that the difficulty was that it was rare to have hints of corruption about to occur. However, various bodies charged with investigating corruption were being hampered with inadequate resources. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Serious Fraud Office were examples.
The Office of Accountability set up by President Kufuor was struggling to live up to expectation.
The newspaper therefore found it fortunate for the people of Ghana in general and President Kufuor in particular, that courtesy some well meaning Ghanaians, it stumbled on the US$6 million scheme which would make the Ghanaian tax payer the poorer.
The newspaper also referred to the 2006 Corruption Perception Index for 163 countries including Ghana launched in November, 2006 and said it was not good news for President Kufuor’s Zero Tolerance for corruption policy.
Ghana’s 2006 CPI was 3.3 and the paper concluded that it represented a worsening of Ghana’s fight against corruption.
