Shocking revelation by Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo that the Ministries of Works and Housing, and the Interior together spent some GH? 1.5 Million on cars that were never delivered to these ministries occurred under the criminally wasteful watch of former President John Dramani Mahama, and not the current Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (See “Interior, Housing Ministries Spent ? 1.5 Million on Never-Delivered Cars – Auditor-General” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 9/30/19).

This is what the Communications Operatives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) need to be highlighting in bullet-point discussions on the current affairs programs of our radio and television stations, as well as in newspapers and on media websites across the country for the enlightenment of the people in the leadup to next year’s general election.

The NPP Communication Team Operatives should not wait until during the homestretch moments of Election 2020, when it would be almost too late for this significant fact of the criminal wastage of taxpayers’ money to have the desired and necessary impact on the electorate.

What is also clear here is that the editors and reporters of the Multimedia Network, operators of the MyJoyOnline.com website and other associated media branches of the Multimedia Network may be smack in the pockets of the key operatives of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress, thus not even the slightest attempt was made to underscore the clearly stated fact by the Auditor-General that this fraudulent incident of vehicular non-delivery between the two aforementioned ministries occurred between 2015 and 2016, when Mr. John Dramani Mahama was substantive President of Ghana and the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. We are not given the specific number of paid-for vehicles that were never delivered to these institutional purchasers. The NPP’s Communicators must painstakingly and meticulously remind the general public that the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party did not assume residency at Jubilee House until January 7, 2017. They should take absolutely nothing for granted!

We are also reliably informed that it is a notorious National Democratic Congress’ operative and a virulently anti-Akufo-Addo propagandist and a Mahama hireling who is presently in charge of editorial affairs at the Multimedia Network. As of this writing, Mr. Domelevo was reported to have instructed the Controller and Accountant-General to ensure that the paid-for vehicles were promptly retrieved for inspection. Whatever happens after such inspection had been conducted was not made clear in the news report. Even so, it well appears that the wasteful spending of taxpayer money may not be peculiar or unique to either of our two major political parties, after all.

Indeed, we are also informed by the Auditor-General that in 2018, of the budgetary request of $ 19 Million (USD) made by accountants and administrators of our diplomatic missions abroad, a whopping amount of $ 27 Million (USD) was delivered by the government at home. This amounted to an overpayment of some $ 8 Million (USD), which comes up to a little over 30-percent overpayment. This is inescapably a major part of the official culture of rank corruption that most forward-looking Ghanaian citizens, both at home and abroad, as well as some concerned so-called foreign development partners and resident foreign diplomats have been bitterly complaining about and fervidly hoping that President Akufo-Addo could manage the country’s fiscal matters much better than all his Fourth-Republican predecessors.

The preceding notwithstanding, about the one encouraging aspect of all these revelations is the fact that under Nana Akufo-Addo’s tenure, there seems to have been healthily effected more official transparency in the manner in which the taxpayer’s money is spent than was ever the case under the previous Fourth-Republican governments. The Auditor-General also needs to be commended for his administrative and professional diligence and integrity, as well as his apparent rarefied sense of patriotism.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net