Mahama has not constituted any post-Kwesi Botchwey survey team – Joyce Bawa

Former President John Mahama says he has not constituted any team to undertake a post-Kwesi Botchwey Committee survey.

According to a statement issued on Monday and signed by Special Aide, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, last week they received reports from across the country about the activities of some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) seeking to solicit information from executives and other members.

She said those collecting the information said they were sponsored by the office of the former President.

The 13-member committee, headed by former Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, toured the country and met with grass root supporters to investigate the cause of the opposition party’s worst electoral defeat.

After the release of the report, there are concerns another group is going around claiming they have been commissioned by the former President.

But Mr Mahama’s Aide has said the former President is not aware of any of such activities.

“We wish to strongly advise them to desist from such acts of impersonation and misinformation, particularly as we all continue to work towards reorganising the party across the country,” she added.

Last month, a 455-page report christened: “Listening to the Grassroots”, recommended to the party to restore and strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of its organs at the branch level, since they were effective tools for unity and cohesion within the party.

Presenting the report to the party in Accra, the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Kwesi Botchwey, said the committee also recommended to the party to improve on the collation of election results and take steps to reconnect with its social democratic values and beliefs.

He said the report further called for steps to be taken to strengthen research and intelligence in the party involving coordination in the larger body of the party’s intellectual capacity, which had not been active in the last few years.

According to him, the report also called for the scaling up and reinvigorating of the youth and women organisations within the party, in view of demographic changes and urbanisation.

Prof. Botchwey spoke about how the committee went about its work by dividing the country into zones and deploying some committee members to sample the views of party supporters who had some concerns and had views on the causes of its defeat.