The Statesman
Bimbilla (Northern Region)Former President Rawlings has made the Castle car pool poorer by one strong vehicle after losing a blue black Toyota Land Cruiser in an accident during his campaign for the NDC before the Bimbilla bye-election.
The 1998 four-wheel drive model with registration number GR5876C and owned by the Office of the President, is parked at the Pusiga Police Station near Bimbilla, after the accident on march 5, while it was on a campaign exercise as part of the former President's convoy.
According to the Police, they only got to know about the accident the next day, which was never officially reported to them. "After convincing ourselves that whoever was using the vehicle did not intend to make any report as required by law, we sent a team to verify and eventually towed the vehicle to the Police Station," said a local police officer who spoke to The Statesman.
He said a search on the vehicle whose number plates had been removed at the time the police arrived showed it was registered to the Office of the President and had not officially been allocated to any individual. This raises concern as to the present government's whole approach to the ongoing saga about the retirement benefits, especially motor vehicles, awarded to the former President and his vice.
There has not been any definitive statement from the government to clarify the issue as to what exactly was given to the two men. Also, evidence of the unofficial status of the crashed Toyota Land Cruiser begs the question of why the Castle has so far shown no interest in retrieving these so-called taken-without- consent vehicles? Basically, these vehicles are said to be fuelled and serviced at taxpayers' expense.
Investigations by the Police, he said, revealed that the vehicle, which was delivered to the government in 1998, was being used by the former President when the accident occurred. The Statesman enquiries showed that the vehicle, which still draws fuel from the Castle filling station, was driven by a driver on the payroll of the Stat Protocol Department.
The accident was the third to hit the NDC during its campaign for the Bimbilla bye-election. The party lost two propaganda vehicles on March 5 and 6 accidents in the Bimbilla area.
It is difficult to mitigate for the government's languid approach to this issue of public concern. Constant newspaper reports and the tone of phone-ins to radio station show a lucid public disapproval to the extravagant vehicular largess reportedly at the former President's disposal at public expense.
The number of motor vehicles put at anywhere between eleven and twenty-one is far and above the number recommended in the yet-to-be-implemented Greenstreet Report commissioned by the previous government. That report recommends two cars for the former President.
