Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has commended President John Mahama for having the courage to order the Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Bertha Ansah-Djan, to step aside following some allegations of misappropriation of funds levelled against her.

Kwesi Pratt, who is also a member of the Socialist Forum in Ghana, praised President Mahama for his efforts to get to the bottom of the alleged case.

Mrs. Ansah-Djan is reported to have misappropriated some funds belonging to the Centre and diverted it into her personal bank account.

She was said to have taken an “undue advantage of her position as CEO of MASLOC to develop a fraudulent scheme which enabled her to divert monies belonging to MASLOC into her son and husband’s company, Amisgold Microfinance Services Ltd, to the tune of five hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GHC 500,000).”

She stands therefore accused of fraud and as a result, asked by President Mahama to step aside for investigations to commence into the allegations.

The Insight Editor, in an interview on Radio Gold, described the President action as a “healthy move” to fight against the corruptible practices of government officials and agencies in the country.

“It is a healthy move to the extent that the Chief Executive of MASLOC happens to be a leading figure in the National Democratic Congress. And if the President is able to treat his own, the way he has treated the MASLOC case, then the indications are that the fight against corruption is gathering momentum and I’m particularly satisfied with the move that the President has initiated with regards to MASLOC,” he said.

Also, making submissions on the Asongtaba guinea fowl project of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), he was optimistic the project would help accrue lots of benefits to the economy.

Explaining issues on the station’s newspaper review, he noted that “we are spending colosal amount of money importing poultry; turkey, chicken and others, we do know that their nutritional quality is not acceptable. We do know that they can create all kinds of diseases in our people and so on. So, we need to find substitute to increase the protein level in our diet and so on, and the guinea fowl project will answer that.”

To him, the project will help create jobs and also enhance the progress of the economy.

He however questioned the rationale behind government’s appointment of the Northern Regional Minister, Hon. Bede Ziedeng, to lead investigations into the project.

“Why that? Why is it that the three Northern Regional Ministers are investigating this affair? Could it have been done better by EOCO? Could it have been done better by BNI? Could it have been done better by the Police? Could it have been done better by independent Commission of Inquiry and so on?” he asked.