Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako has strongly condemned a Lens newspaper story about monies he and other journalists on President Kufuor’s entourage to the US were being paid, calling it outrageous.

Mr. Baako who is the Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper and an avowed, dyed-in-the-wool defender of the Kufuor administration is part of the large entourage that traveled with the President following an invitation by President George Bush of the United States of America.

The Lens newspaper issue of Tuesday September 16, 2008 carried a front page story which said the President’s entourage was made up of 156 people and was costing GH¢11 million. The newspaper reported that Kwaku Baako was being paid a per diem of US$6,500 while other journalists were receiving US$6000.Speaking to Citi News from the US, Mr. Baako said the report by the Lens newspaper is regrettable, adding that he did not lobby to be part of the President’s entourage and he was not receiving per diem up to that amount.

Drawing comparisons between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) under former President Rawlings, and the Kufuor administration, he said the Rawlings regime did not include journalists from the private media on its entourage for international trips, the Kufuor administration has however broken that convention and now includes journalists both from state-owned and the private media.He challenged that anyone who wanted to know how he got selected could check from the President’s Press Secretary or the Minister of Information.He said journalists in the private and state media constitute part of the presidential press corps, and they need to have access to the presidency as part of their job, adding, “I see nothing wrong with that. What is happening is a needless controversy.”

Asked about the truth or otherwise of the US$6500 per diem he was being paid, he responded, “that is an outrageous figure and whoever is interested can check from those who are in-charge of finances of the President’s travel.”He asked anyone who wants to know, to check even with journalists who have traveled with the former president before, saying no journalist has ever been paid that much per diem.He argued that in all the three trips that he has made on the President’s entourage, he has never been paid that amount, besides, he said, this trip should not be reduced to issues of money.

He said he is not motivated by the desire to make money out of presidential trips or else he would not make only three trips in the seven years of the Kufuor regime, he would have made more.He said the trip should be looked at in terms of the exposure, networking the trip would give to Ghanaian journalists, and how much that could benefit the country. He said that could not be quantified in money.Asked to tell how much per diem each journalist on the trip was receiving, he refused and asked “why should I?” He said journalists on the trip would not know how much the president is spending on his trip, and those who want to know should check from the appropriate sources, like the Accountant-General, Chief of Staff and the Finance Ministry.

He accused the journalists who are reporting on the trip of doing a shoddy job, by mentioning Alfred Ogbamey’s name, even though, he is not part of the entourage. Meanwhile, Kobby Fiagbe, editor of the Lens newspaper, speaking to Citi News, insisted that the newspaper made checks on the story by placing calls to the office of the President but no one was willing to respond to their requests officially, but unofficially, some people at the presidency who were outraged by the money involved spoke to the newspaper. He also said, since they put the story out no one has come out to tell the public exactly how much is being paid out to the people on the entourage, arguing that, it does not matter who is being paid per diems but how much is being spent, especially, when “we are being told that there is no money and some of us are lazy.”

When asked to respond to Kwaku Baako’s questioning of his professional competence, Mr. Fiagbe said he has no problem with that. On his newspaper’s goof over the mention of Alfred Ogbamey of the Gye Nyame Concord as part of the entourage, he said, the information they got was that he was scheduled to be on the trip, but for some reasons he was unable to go. He said categorically that the information they had was that, Mr. Ogbarmey was originally supposed to be on the trip. Asked if the goof would not cast doubts on his story, he said, “I have no problem with whoever wants to doubt our story.” When Citi News called the Accountant-General on the matter, he declined to comment.