Technocrats influence politicians to be corrupt – Ashanti Regional minister

Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah has accused government technocrats of initiating politicians into corruption in their respective supervising institutions.

He has bemoaned the public’s continues generalization of politicians as corrupt and leaving out technocrats in government sectors who engineer corrupt practices in the public space.

Speaking at a Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) workshop for stakeholders in the mining sector in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah disclosed Technocrats at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (ARCC) are calling him names because he has blocked all sources of corruption at the various departments.

He however, called on his colleague ministers and other government appointees not to allow themselves to be used by technocrats working closely with them to peruse their corrupt interest.

The minister reiterated government’s commitment towards the national battle against illegal mining activities particularly in the Ashanti region.

He described the battle as tedious following opposition the government is facing from politicians and other opposing Ghanaians.

Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) workshop was used to review performance of various mining firms and royalties paid to stool lands, MMDCEs within mining districts and other mining corporate tax paid to government.

The meeting was also used to highlight investments MMDCE’s have done with the mining royalties paid to them by mining firms.

The event was organized by the Finance Ministry in partnership with Ministry of land and Natural resource.