Scrap law on causing financial loss - Obed

The national chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, has called for the repeal of the law on causing financial loss to state from our statute books since the NPP government is abusing its application.

The law, which he said was enacted by the PNDC government, not the NDC as some people are claiming, had the good intention of checking those who criminally caused financial loss to the state but the way the NPP government had been applying it left much to be desired.

Speaking in an interview he granted SKYY Power FM during his recent tour of the western region, Dr. Asamoah said comments made by Justice Afreh during the trial of Kwame Peprah, Ibrahim Adam and Dr. Sipa Yankey in the quality grain trial proved his point that the application of the law was being abused by the NPP government and must therefore be repealed.

He noted that when he was Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the NDC regime, he did not agree to the repeal of the criminal libel law because he thought it was a good law that must remain in our statute books to check certain abuses. He said Britain was still maintaining this law in their statute books.

Dr. Asamoah further noted that laws such as criminal libel and causing financial loss to the state only became bad laws in the eyes of the public when their application was abused as NPP had started doing, hence his call for its repeal as they had done to the criminal libel law which, he said, they had regretted repealing.

The NDC chairman told his host that though the NPP government was using this law on causing financial loss to harass ex-ministers in the NDC regime, the same government had refused or turned deaf ears to calls that, some of its members, using the same yardstick they were using against some NDC ministers, had also caused financial loss to the state.

He mentioned the strategic reserve plant at Tema, which was imported into the country by the VRA but had failed to produce a single unit of power. He also mentioned the abrogation of the pact signed between VALCO and the NDC government and the refusal of the government to use the Gulf Stream jet, which was bought with state resources as some of the financial losses caused the state.

This jet is still sitting on the tarmac because somebody has refused to use it. “Does it not amount to causing financial loss to the state?” he asked his host.

Dr. Obed Asamoah said the Kufuor - led government seemed to be learning from the Progress Party government headed by Dr. Busia who used the setting up of the various commissions to harass his political opponents, especially the CPP. He however admitted that he had not been harassed by the current government but was quick to add that the process might be on the way, looking at what was being done to his colleagues.

Touching on the economic policy of the government, Dr. Asamoah noted that it was a complete failure because businesses were collapsing due to the cut - throat tax policy of the government. He insisted that the decision to go HIPC was the move that exacerbated the situation, noting that, because of the government decision to adopt the HIPC initiative, she had been compelled to remove subsidies on social amenities like water, electricity, petrol, among others which had all been increased by over 150%.

These increases, including the removal of subsidy on agricultural goods, he continued, had affected the ordinary Ghanaian but because the NPP government was a capitalist oriented one; they care not about the situation or the predicament of the people.

Dr. Asamoah assured his listeners that the next NDC government would be a human centered one, which would not implement policies that would have an adverse effect on the people and the business community.

He admitted that the NPP as a party, having been in the opposition for such a long time, would not easily relinquish power but said, with determination and hard work, the NDC would surely subdue them, come December this year.

Dr. Asamoah however cautioned the Electoral Commission (EC) to take time and study the constitution carefully before attempting to conduct elections in the new constituencies they have created, pointing out that, it would be illegal for the EC to carry out the exercise without the dissolution of the current parliament. He did not state whether the NDC would go to court over the issue or not.