Saga Over Aircrafts Purchase For GAF

RAP Exposes NPP Minority

Says its better than:

…1, wasting a whooping ¢14b on Gold medals to hang on Prez Kufour’s neck

….2, spending a colossal sums of $130m on presidential palace

…3, using $110m to buy two presidential jets only

…4, spending hefty cost of $75m on Ghana@50th celebration

By Cletus Abaare

The debates over the purchase of the five aircrafts for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government seem to be far from over as a group calling itself Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) has waded into the debates, exposing the hypocritical stand of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its Minority in Parliament.

The group has described the Minority as a group of parliamentarians who were bent on sowing seeds of discord among the public against the NDC government move in a desperate bid to revive their credibility which has been soiled after their 8 years rule.

The RAP in a press conference yesterday condemned the Minority stance against the purchase of the aircrafts to equip the GAF to enhance its operations in protecting the territorial borders of the country.

The RAP’s Convener, Mr. Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who read statement, said the NDC government’s decision to purchase the five aircrafts was better than the millions of the taxpayers’ money wasted by the Kuffour NPP government.

“The buying of the aircrafts to equip the Armed Forces is far better than the opulent and ostentatious spending that characterized their tenure in office like building a Presidential palace at a colossal USD 130 Million, celebrating Ghana’s 50th Birthday at a hefty cost of USD 75 Million, buying two presidential jets at USD 110 Million and finally buying Gold medals worth 14 billion cedis to hang around the necks of President Kufuor and his friends”, the convener stated.

He continued that it was a mark of dishonesty on the part of the NPP to claim that government has neglected its responsibility to address the basic problems of the people and was focusing on equipping GAF, which to NPP were non essential.

In furthering their argument, the convener said it was useful to note that the Minority, who claimed to be sensitive to the plights of the ordinary Ghanaians did not reject GH¢ 16,339,346.00 or GH¢163 .39 billion cedis the government has released to Members of Parliament as their ex-gratia in the supplementary budget Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has presented recently.

“Is it the case that NPP parliamentarians think that they who belong to an institution with 230 members and a few dozen support staff deserve all the money they can get but the hard working men and women of the Ghana Air Force do not deserve to be equipped to do their jobs for which they are trained and paid by the state?” he queried.

Mr. Kwakye Ofosu noted that the NPP has fraudulently claimed that the price of this particular aircraft was $32 million and therefore the actual basic price of $55,264,000 was inflated by government.

“In other words the NPP is saying that the Military High Command headed by Major General Blay, the Air force Commander Air Vice Marshal Samson Oje who has given 35 years of distinguished service to the nation, the technical team set up to negotiate the purchase, the manufacturers of the Aircraft, the Brazilian Government and Military authorities are corrupt”

He revealed that the NPP minority in their haste to lie about the government and soil the integrity of the leadership of decent men and women of the Air force relied on scanty and inaccurate information gleaned from a website whose credibility could not readily be vouched for.

They noted that the NPP MPs after committing this blunder and making a mockery of themselves then sought to create the impression that they obtained information about the price of the Embrear 190 SAA from the official website of the manufacturer.

“This claim by the NPP is an absolute lie and was calculated at deceiving the Ghanaian public into believing that the NDC government was up to some corrupt deed. The falsehood peddled by the NPP becomes manifest when one visits the official website of the manufacturer of the Embrear 190 aircraft www.embraer.com which makes absolutely no mention of the basic price of the aircraft”, the statement further noted. .