Elikem Kotoko, a member of the NDC’s communication team has called the dismissal of the former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), by the President mediocre if counted as part of the President’s effort in fighting corruption in the country.
The dismissal of the former PPA boss, Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei, was as a result of a submitted report to the President, by the Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr. Joseph Whittal. This was following the release an investigative report that implicated Mr. Adjenim for conflict of interest and abuse of office.
Mr. Elikem Kotoko said, if the President is really committed to fighting corruption as he has stated, only dismissing the former PPA boss does not count as a strong example of the President stance on corruption. He said more probing into the issue and further prosecution must have been done in order to recover the embezzled state funds.
“It will be mediocre if you want to make mention of that. He has been relieved off his position, and the millions that he has squandered, what is happening to that…? why won’t he go further with the former PPA boss?”
He said the President shields his family members who have been appointed by him into public office from investigations and prosecutions. He further revealed that, anyone who dared to investigate or prosecute his appointees is targeted and “deliberately brought down”.
“You dare not touch any family member of his, that he has appointed. When Domelevo tried doing that with Kroll and Associate on Osafo Maafo, we saw his fate. Martin Amidu has come up with Agyapa deal corruption risk assessment which damns Ken Ofori Atta so much, and again this is how it is. So, it’s like touch not my party and do my family members no harm.”
Mr. Kotoko made these remarks as he spoke on the issue of the Presidency saying fair hearing was misconstrued as political interference by Mr. Amidu. This is in the case of the request by the President, requesting of Martin Amidu to give the Finance Minister the opportunity to comment of his findings on the Agyapa deal risk assessment before submitting the report to the right quarters.
He challenged the Finance Minister, Hon. Ken Ofori Atta to come out and comment on the matter if he and his office say they are innocent in the issue at hand.
“If you think you have a 13 page or a 100 page report on Martin Amidu’s submission, the finance minister has got all the channels available to him, to even pay for primetime and address the nation. Let us see if he has got the balls to do that.”
He went on to say the President’s statement of his commitment to fight corruption was not what he actually meant, but the intended meaning was to make corruption thrive.
“President Nana Addo said he was going to fight corruption but he meant a certain way we did not understand. He actually meant that he was going to make sure corruption thrive.”
