Over ¢6 Billion Propaganda Cash

The Herald’s expose of a “private and confidential memo” by Ms. Oboshie Sai Coffie, an ex-Minister of Information, to a former National Security Co ordinator, Dr. G Amoo, in the Kufuor regime, for over ¢6 billion propaganda cash, for the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Communications Strategy, has set out some of the said beneficiaries of the cash going after her.

Messrs Samuel Abu Jinapor, Anthony Abayifa Karbo and John Boadu, vibrant and youthful members of the NPP media co ordinators in the run-up to the 2008 general elections, have all denied ever receiving any money from Ms. Coffie, meant to be remuneration for propaganda work they did for the NPP.

The memo was published by The Herald in its 58th edition dated Mon 15-Thursday 18 August 2011.It stated that “the above-mentioned men belonging to a team called Public Relations & Information Management Team-Regional (PRIM), were paid Gh¢250 (¢2.500 million ) a month from January 2007 to December 2008”.

Though they have conceded being members of PRIM, they have denied ever taking any money from the ex-Information Minister who used to be a host of Straight Talk on Ghana Television (GTV), and challenged her to back her claim with a proof.

Samuel Abu Jinapor, Anthony Abayifa Karbo and John Boadu, have all been on radio denying knowledge of the ¢6 billion propaganda cash. Anthony Karbo who is the NPP Youth Organizer followed up with a telephone call to The Herald, asking: “Why is Oboshie quiet on this? Why is she not talking? She must talk because I never collected any money”.

So also are some of the serial callers of the NPP, based in Kumasi, denying ever receiving money from Mr. Asamoah Boateng, also a former Information Minister under the Kufuor- led NPP government, for calling into newspaper review programmes, to defend and promote the NPP government.

They too are calling the ex-Minister to provide proof that they had been paid for the service they rendered to the party from 2007 to 2008.

Meanwhile, at the on-going Public Accounts Committee sittings, Gifty Arthur reports that many were those who were expecting that the issue of the ‘Special Audit Report’, as some call it, by the AG, will be looked into when representatives of the Ministry of Information appeared before it last Tuesday.

Unfortunately, the committee made no mention of the damning report, making the anxious public disappointed. Our checks from the committee indicated that the said report of which The Herald has a copy, has not come to the notice of the Speaker of Parliament Mrs. Joyce Bamford Addo.

After Tuesday’s sitting, The Herald, in its quest to find out how come the report did not feature in the Information Ministry’s document, contacted a very prominent member of the committee who did not want to be quoted. He down played the existence of any such report, asking rhetorically, ‘do you think there is any report like that? There is no report like that”.

NPP’s Atwima Mponua MP, Isaac Asiamah who commented on the issue, said that there is nothing of the sought anywhere, and asked those who are sure of the existence of the said report to continue to swim in their propaganda.

Meanwhile, before the Tuesday’s sitting of the committee, the Chairman of the PAC Hon. Albert Kan Dapaah, took a swipe at critics who are calling for his removal as chairman of the committee. He said he has not broken any rule of the committee, although he conceded that he served as a minister in the years under review.

Since the committee started its sitting last Monday, a section of the public have raised questions as to why Mr. Dapaah should continue to chair a committee which is scrutinizing reports in which he served as a minister. They, as a matter of urgency, requested that he stepped aside to pave way for a more neutral person to take over since they believed that one cannot be a judge on his own case.

But reacting to the issue on the committee’s second day sittings last Tuesday, Mr. Kan- Dapaah said that the law stipulates that when a party is in government, both the chairman and the deputy of the committee should come from an opposition party to enhance the neutrality and credibility of the various reports that will come before it.

Unfortunately, he said, during the tenure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2001, the then chairman of the committee and former Member of Parliament (MP) for Jomoro, Silas Mensah, for reasons refused to sit on the reports that were audited by the then Auditor General, Mr. Dua Agyeman.

This, he said contributed to the backlog that were witnessed years gone by and contributed to the unusual, where the opposition NPP is chairing its own reports. Through hard work and commitment, he added, the committee is aiming at finishing all the backlog this year.

The MP who is one of the Ministers who served in several portfolios in the previous administration, hinted that currently the Auditor General has submitted the 2010’s report, and that by next year, the committee would have finished work on both 2010 and 2011 so that by 2013, a new committee would be dealing with only the previous year.

Mr. Dapaah said that he needed to explain to the public who called into radio stations and those who politely sent him txt messages, asking him if his conscience served him right chairing a committee which is looking at reports in which he served as a minister.

“I think this explanation is needed to answer the many people who call into radio stations and even at times write very polite txt messages to me to ask how it fits into my conscience. I think I have a very free conscience on this matter”, he said.

He, however, promised that he will step aside when ministries such as the Energy, Interior and others come up for scrutiny since he presided over such ministries.

Since the committee commenced sitting last Monday, it has been bombarded with series of revelation, which bother on malfeasance, misappropriation of state funds, incompetence and abuse of power.

Since last Monday, Ministries, Departments and Agencies that appeared at the committee have shown little or no effort in fighting embezzlement, misappropriation of state funds and other malfeasances.

The committee, just like other PAC, has complained bitterly about officials of government institutions and agencies’ refusal to punish wrong-doers and the level at which public servants have diverted the tax payers money.

The members, in one accord, urged the ministers and officials of the various ministries to institute measures to punish wrong-doers who have been recommended by the AG to be punished, saying that their refusal to do so would attract separate punishment for those who refused to punish.

They said punishing people for doing the wrong thing is not the comfort of anyone, but said it is to serve as a deterrent for prospective wrong-doers. Among some of the ministries that have shown up at the committee are the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Lands and Natural Resources, Information, Defence, Chieftaincy and Culture and others.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration could not be heard because the minister was not in the country to appear personally.

They were, therefore, asked to go and wait for the minister till he comes from his travel, as they promised they will allocate a special time for them. The committee is expected to end sitting today.