Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has described President Akufo-Addo’s government as “lame duck”.
He revealed that the government has, among other things, not ensured that Capital Gains Tax was assessed and collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) “under the watch of the Minister of Finance, the President’s cousin, and right hand man, in the sale of the 7% interest by Anadarko in the Jubilee and TEN fields” in 2021. He indicated that this is a Government which is suspected of giving away the natural gas patrimony of Ghanaians to Genser, an American Company, at no cost to the detriment of the public purse of “$1.5 billion monetary loss” to the state.
Owing to this, Mr Amidu noted that government is doing all it can to salvage its reputation.
“The Government is already lame duck. It has less than two years to manage the affairs of this country to honestly turn our fortunes around. It is, therefore, hurriedly making all efforts to raise $500 million by forward felling our patrimony of oil reserves to a collaborating company of the Family and Friends from international capital. The amount is to be raised and spent by this same corrupt government while giving away our oil at a fixed price of $65 per barrel no matter future appreciations in the market price of oil.”
Martin Amidu
Ghanaians, Mr Amidu explained, will have to pay in next year’s budget for all the inequities of government as part of the IMF negotiated package. He stated that on a different breath, the opposition NDC’s Minority in Parliament are “telling Ghanaians again that they will not allow our natural resources to be shared between the comprador” government and its international capitalist collaborators to the detriment of the suffering masses of Ghanaians.
Responsibilities of the OSP in fighting corruption
To this, Mr Amidu indicated that Ghanaians are familiar with such promises made by politicians who desire power. According to him, Ghanaians have heard “such apparently solemn commitments and pronouncements” before.
“We heard them when this Government was vetting its Ministers at the beginning of its second term last year. We heard solemn commitments and pronouncements on the E-levy during last year’s budget presentation and eventual approval. In each of these cases we witnessed the vile compromises in which the aspirations of the ordinary man were sold to the Government.”
Martin Amidu
The former Special Prosecutor further questioned whether the Office of the Special Prosecutor has not criminalised “influence peddling and lobbying activities” as forming part of corruption and corruption-related offences under Ghanaian law.
“Ghanaians cannot soon forget that the OSP made adverse findings against Ghanaian citizens and retrieved GHC1 million into its Assets Recovery and Preservation Account for influence peddling, lobbying, potential corruption, and similar new corruption offences in the alleged OSP Labianca Report. Or is there one law for Ghanaians and another law for foreign-owned companies operating in Ghana, particularly when the excessively effective lobbying and shrewd negotiation involves a whopping USD1.5billion loss to the public purse? Maybe the OSP is waiting for a petition on Genser!”
Martin Amidu
Mr Amidu highlighted that these are “confessions of the bare facts and the circumstances of Ghana’s constitutional democracy” today. He indcated that these facts include those which citizens are expected to rely on the recent promises and assurances about the determination of the NDC in parliament to stand with the suffering mass of the people. He noted that this is unattainable when the “individual stomachs of our members” of Parliament matter more than the electorate that voted them to put Ghana First in Parliament.
“Parliament that its duty is to issue the party whip as a directive to its members to stand against a particular policy and nothing more. The NDC Members of Parliament are at liberty to go against the party whip.”
Martin Amidu
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