Mahama's corruption pronouncements hollow - GII

Anti-graft body, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has strongly criticised President John Mahama for suggesting that he has an unbeatable record in fighting corruption.

President Mahama at a Town Hall meeting in the USA told a section of Ghanaians he is the only Ghanaian leader to prosecute corrupt government appointees.

The President said his efforts to tackle the canker are unprecedented.

“A member of parliament of my own party is before the court as I speak, how many governments in the past will have the courage to prosecute their own people.

“Often governments won’t investigate corruption because if you investigate, it creates the perception that there is a lot of corruption but I believe that the first step in dealing with corruption is exposing them,” President Mahama said.

But the Executive Director of GII, Vitus Azeem said the President’s pronouncements do not match his actions against corruption.

“He makes good public pronouncements about the fight against corruption but the action is not forthcoming,” Azeem said.

He added, “there are at least five clear examples, the Info Subah solutions; you pay this person for doing no work, we raise the matter, you set up an internal body to investigate, made up of people that were involved in the contract in the first place...nothing came out of it.

“Talk about GYEEDA, people were asked to refund monies, how much monies have they refunded so far. Talk about the SADA case, yes you have removed the CEO and the board but have you recovered monies that were wrongly paid...No; his pronouncements do not go with action,” Azeem told Starr FM Monday.