The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Special Prosecutor to investigate all Ministers and public officials who have been cited in the Auditor General’s report on Government’s COVID-19 expenditures for wrongdoing to book.
This was made known at a Moment of Truth press conference addressed by the NDC National Communications Officer, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi ESQ in Accra.
The NDC party also, called on the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) to expedite its public hearings on the Special Audit Report into COVID-19 expenditures saying, the hearing should be televised live for the Ghanaian public to follow and be apprised of how the government expended COVID-19 funds.
“We further urge Parliament to compel the Auditor-General to exercise his power of surcharge and disallowance to retrieve all COVID-19 funds that have been misapplied or misused through various infractions and veritable acts of criminality”.
The NDC again, called on President Akufo-Addo to immediately fired the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori Atta, the Health Minister, Hon. Kweku Agyemang Menu, the Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the CEO of the National Food Buffer Stock Company and all other officials who have been cited in the report for violating the laws of the country in their expenditure of COVID-19 funds.
“We cannot and will not accept any situation where the Ghanaian people will be further punished and made to suffer for the willful mismanagement and destruction of our economy while the thieves in government who continue to milk the state coffers dry are left off the hook to enjoy their loot. We shall not sit aloof and watch the mother serpent of corruption, President Akufo-Addo and his Appearance-Fee-Collection Vice, Alhaji Bawumia whitewash this audit report and sweep it under the carpet as they have done in time past. Enough is enough”.
According to Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, unlike President Akufo-Addo who has proven to be the Chief Corruption Clearing Agent, the whole world witnessed how the Malawian President, Lazarus Chakwera, cracked the whip on officials of his government who were found to have misused COVID-19 funds.
He said the Malawian President is on record to have fired his Labour Minister, Ken Kandodo together with nineteen (19) other Officials. “Friends, Kandodo’s crime was that he used less than $800 of the COVID-19 fund on allowances for a trip to South Africa in the company of the President. This is what decisive leadership is all about, but alas, here in Ghana, officials of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government receive promotion and patting at the back for engaging in acts of stealing of public funds”.
Mr. Gyamfi revealed that, while COVID-19 may have been a national health disaster for Ghana, it was a bonanza and an avenue for officials of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and the New Patriotic Party to engage in the most obscene plundering of state resources never seen before in Ghana’s history.
He pointed out that, about GHS82,500,000 of COVID-19 funds were doled out to New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Candidates and Constituency Chairmen in all 275 Constituencies across the country.
“As we speak, government has announced a total freeze on public sector employment while our secondary schools are battling with hunger due to shortage of food supplies from the Government. Our children don’t even have access to basic curricular-based text books almost four years after the introduction of a new curricular”.
COVID-19 Mr. Sammy Gyamfi hinted, brought the biggest financial windfall that have ever accrued to a sitting government in the history of Ghana and that, the country would not have been plunged into the economic mess presently find in, if the resources have been judiciously and prudently utilized by the duty-bearers.
“It is a fact beyond dispute that Ghana is now bankrupt and our economy has finally collapsed under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Alhaji Bawumia. Having run down our economy through reckless and inordinate borrowing, stealing, and outright abuse of public funds, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government in a desperate move to clinch an IMF deal which appears to be their last gasp for breathe, has resorted to a Domestic Debt Exchange program which seeks to expropriate the live savings and hard earned monies of government creditors including Ghanaian citizens”.
