Scandal most smelly

Government is struggling to extricate itself from the Ameri scandal about which many questions continue to beg for answers. So far, however, the arguments put out especially from the Power Minister have failed to pass muster.

The matter under review is so complex and criminally tinctured that mere press releases, statements or press conferences cannot address it. Indeed, it goes beyond the cacophonous remarks of persons with limited knowledge about the subject: players in the now operative propaganda industry who attempt answers on radio stations end up entangling themselves further in the quicksand that is the Ameri scandal.

We are dealing with an industry peopled by international crooks used to collaborating with governments who are ready to play ball even as their people wallow in abject poverty.

For such governments, their heads insensitive to the demands of their people, the end justifies the means. The international best practices in procurement and contract award mean nothing to them.

It took the explanation of a foreign journalist to prompt the reaction of the Ghanaian media: the passion and confidence – two driving attributes in the Norwegian – which pushed him to go the extra mile on this issue is providential, coming at a time when Ghana was ignominiously ranked second in a corruption rating. Those who listened to him were close to whinging their arms in disappointment. The continuous involvement of government and its appointees in matters of graft is disheartening.

If those charged with keeping the public purse lose their integrity, as it is becoming clear, Ghanaians must consider looking elsewhere for another group of their people to take over.

Bad governance and corruption would not take this country anywhere and we shudder to think about the consequences of these high-notched scandals which continue to pour on us unceasingly as though those perpetrating them have lost their conscience; that is anyway becoming too obvious, given the rapidity of the scandals.

It is an insult on the people of this country when those thought to be responsible for the scam continue to churn out spurious arguments in their bid to throw dust into our eyes.

The fact that we have never been presidents does not mean that we are unable to discern such wrongdoings which can only be perpetrated by those who operate within the corridors of power.

Our country is in the economic doldrums and will continue to be there until there is a paradigm shift in the way we manage it.

Parliament, we regretfully say, had failed in stopping this scandal – something which is on the lips of many who have followed the scandal since it broke.

If many statements could change the position of people, the flurry of such reactions after news of the scandal was broken could have achieved that feat. So far, however, they have not and would never do.