News:
November 1, 2013
A former Majority Leader, Mr Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, has pooh-poohed government’s measures to fight corruption in the country, saying much is left to be desired.
He said he was yet to see a semblance of political leadership and commitment to fight corruption which is said to have progressively worsened over the years.
Mr. Bagbin was expressing frustration at government’s handling of findings contained in an investigative report on the operations of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA).
A committee set up the government to conduct the investigations, cited some officials for complicity in shady deals and plain stealing and recommended their prosecution.
The report also recommended the abrogation of some contracts with service providers under GYEEDA.
But months after the report was submitted to the president, action is yet to be taken and Mr. Bagbin believes it has taken too long for government to act on the recommendations.
Asked if he thinks Ghana has the political leadership needed to deal with corruption, he said, “Well I haven’t seen it yet. I haven’t seen it yet…no no no I haven’t seen it”.
According to him, the way and manner the issue has been handled has “shocked all of us”.
Mr Bagbin, who is one of the three Wise Men in charge of government special projects, told Joy News’ Manasseh Awuni Azure that the decision by the ministerial committee to submit its findings to the presidency was itself problematic.
“It was even wrong for that kind of report to be sent straight to the presidency, so the presidency has a difficulty and has to set up another committee to look into the report”.
In his view, “the best is to get the allegations investigated by the police service with the Attorney General’s Department that is what should have been done”.
Mr Bagbin asserted that if it was done in the way as he suggested, Ghanaians would have seen result “long, long ago” – the culprits would have been brought to book.
Myjoyonline.com