Sipa’s Woes: An NDC Inside Job!

By Michael Dokosi & Livingstone Pay Charlie

Dr. George Sipa Yankey, Ghana’s Former Minister of Health, might as well get himself a job out of politics if he wants the alleged Mabey & Johnson scandal that has been hanging around his neck like an albatross to be removed.

Intelligence gathered by the Daily Post has revealed that the several twists & turns the case has undergone so far is a deliberate attempt by certain personalities within the NDC to ensure that President Mills does not appoint him to any Ministerial position again. And, in CHRAJ boss, Emile Short, they have found a willing tool to execute their invidious agenda.

According to the source, certain key Ministers in the Mills government suspect that President Mills will appoint Dr. Yankey to take over from them in the next Ministerial re-shuffle hence are doing everything possible to ensure that investigations into the case remains ‘uncompleted’ until the President has made his expected major re-shuffle.

This was corroborated by very reliable sources with the CHRAJ who told the Daily Post that investigations conducted by the Commission were completed in December last year with Dr. Yankey being exonerated from allegations of receiving bribes.

However, Mr. Short decided, on the orders of key people in government, that the investigations into the allegations against other personalities have to be completed as well before investigations will be deemed as having been completed hence the decision to add Dr. Yankey’s case to the rest and go for a public hearing.

A member of the amorphous pro-NPP group, Alliance For Accountable Governance, AFAG, also told the Daily Post that their decision to drag the accused persons to CHRAJ was encouraged by people in the NDC who gave them further assistance. Last Friday, at a press conference in Accra, AFAG showed its frustration at the long twists and turns the CHRAJ has taken the case through. It stated its belief that Commissioner Short deliberately prejudiced the case knowing very well its consequences because he wanted “…spirited servants like Alhaji Saddique Boniface, Dr. Sipa Yankey and others, who sought to clear their names and thus remove the stigma attached” from doing so.

Attempts to get Dr. Yankey to comment on Daily Post’s findings proved futile as he was said to be away in Takoradi. His phone too had been turned off. Dr. Yankey was appointed Minister of Health when the NDC assumed the reins of power in January 2009. He immediately embarked on radical reforms to revitalize the health delivery system in the country.

This earned him rare reviews by many media houses with some voting him the “Best Minister”, a development that drew the ire of some of his colleagues. Then came the scandal in the U.K where a British Construction firm, Mabey & Johnson, plea bargained in the Southwark Crown Court, admitting that they have given bribe to some Ghanaian officials. Ironically, the alleged givers of the bribe were not at post at the time the bribe was alleged to have been given. Neither were the names of the givers stated in the prosecutions’ note prepared by the UK Serious Fraud Office. It is also on record that the M & J directors who were at post at the time the bribe was allegedly given have vehemently denied that.