Mills approved of Kufuor's use of new office - P.V. Obeng

Head of Government's transition team, Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, has expressed surprise at the raging debate over the propriety of ex-President J.A. Kufuor's acquisition of a state property for his private office.

PV told Asempa FM in Accra that the former president officially informed President J.E.A. Mills of his desire to use the office and received the president's due blessing for its use.

Mr. Obeng said he personally conveyed ex-President Kufuor's request to President Mills orally, who he said readily agreed to the request provided his predecessor was comfortable with it.

What President Mills requested however, according P.V. Obeng, was for a speedy completion of all formalities in relation to the request, and the government therefore had been looking forward to documentation to that effect.

P.V. Obeng wondered where all the agitations, accusations and counter accusations had emanated from and said such unnecessary conducts only set the present government against the former, suggesting also that perhaps the issue would not have erupted if due documentation processes had been completed in time.

Pronouncements from some members of government have sought to reprimand the former President for wrongfully appropriating the state bungalow, previously occupied by a minister of state, and while his officers have insisted that proper procedures were followed, public debate over the acquisition particularly in the media, have largely been reduced to insults across the political divide.

Ex-President Kufuor has since late January, 2009, been using the state property located at Ridge in Accra, as his office.