General News of Monday, 29 January 2007

Source: GNA

Mills reacts to Kufuor statements

Accra, Jan. 29 GNA - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration left a lasting legacy for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to build on, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, NDC Presidential candidate for Election 2008 said on Monday.

Prof. Mills was reacting to statements attributed to President John Agyekum Kufuor at the People's Assembly held recently at Sunyani. He said the peaceful transfer of power from NDC to NPP was something that should be extolled and for which President Kufuor should be grateful.

Prof Mills said the mere fact that the NPP Government found money to pay Public and Civil Servants at the end of the month in which it assumed power belied the often made assertion that the NPP Government inherited empty coffers.

Prof Mills cited extracts from the NPP Government's 2001 Budget Statement in which the loans that the NDC Government contracted in 2000 were made available to the NPP Government to use saying, the NPP's 2004 Campaign Document: "So Far, so Very Good" showed the projects that the NPP Government executed with the NDC contracted loans.

He said the NDC made huge investments in road construction; in the extension of electricity to all district capitals; in upgrading and establishment of polytechnics in all the 10 regions and two new public universities; in the construction of modern hospitals at Cape Coast, Ho and Sunyani as well as the construction of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) estates all over the country.

Former Vice President Mills cited the establishment of District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF); Ghana Education Trust Fund and the Energy Fund among other funds, as concrete evidence of the huge legacy NDC left for the NPP Administration.

He called on President Kufuor to find a way of investigating and reprimanding his appointees, who were perceived to be corrupt, and to stop saying that people should rather provide him with evidence of corruption against them.