Opinions of Sunday, 4 November 2018

Columnist: Richmond Adofo

The President must sack the Director General of Ghana Maritime Authority!

Ghana Maritime Authority Director General, Kwame Owusu Ghana Maritime Authority Director General, Kwame Owusu

If I had my own way, I would advise or suggest to His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to expel Mr Kwame Owusu, the Director General of Ghana Maritime Authority, from his post with immediate effect. Expulsion itself must not be enough but to prosecute him for craftily causing financial loss to the State will better serve the purpose.

I am not at all enthused about the explanations offered as to why and how Mr Kwame Owusu, the Director-General in question, has spent about GHC135,000 on an end of year party for his workers; GHC1 million to renovate through conversion of his two-bedroom house into a four bedroom house and also having eleven air condition units fixed in the house which he feels are not enough but he should have had thirteen.

He goes on to say that some people in government are spending more than he had spent so what is the matter with Ghanaians questioning his morality and credibility on the expenditures he has made. For me, the expenditures are not only fraudulent but border on conflict of interest as well. It is pure stealth.

One can use GHC1million to build a complete four or six bedroom house in Accra when the land is made available. Therefore, to use the taxpayers’ money to renovate by converting a two bedroom house into four bedroom is complete theft.

Hanging the phone up on journalists trying to query him and treating Ghanaians’ quest to get to the bottom of his action as rubbish should be enough for the president to sack him without any ifs or buts. He must be prosecuted straight away. Why are Ghanaians left to be treated anyhow and like dirt by our corrupt politicians and Civil Service heads?

Is it the case of many in the NPP government and party stealing money which Mr Kwame Owusu is aware of hence his audacious stance to treat with a whiff Ghanaians curiosity to know why he had spent such sums of money which are estimated to be way above the normal? Are the NPP committing the same thieveries as the NDC hence their unwillingness or purposeful sabotage to allowing the Special Prosecutor, Hon Martin Amidu, a man of admirable integrity etched in stone, from doing his job?

The then presidential-candidate Nana Akufo-Addo promised to prosecute the perceived corrupt NDC appointees as soon as Ghanaians offered him the chance to rule Ghana. However, almost two years into his presidency, nothing has been done. The Special Prosecutor has not even been resourced and when he opens up his frustrations, he is mocked by the Attorney General, Ms Gloria Akuffo, for being too loquacious.

Is the Attorney General serious at all? Is she fit for purpose? Has the Asante “Overlord” not weakened her drive to prosecute people? Are the NPP doing, “your scratch my back, I scratch your back” with NDC hence never in the mood to prosecute any corrupt NDC or former cum present NPP official?

What is going on Mr President? There should not be any lengthy investigations into what might have been possibly a sole sourcing and conflict of interest expenditures without resort to due diligence, thus, proper procedural tendering. In his explanations, he insults the intelligence of Ghanaians by saying, does it matter whether whoever he contracted to do the job is his relative, friend or wife? Are they not equally Ghanaians who have the right to work and that he is not the only one doing that? Yes, they are equally Ghanaians and have the right to be offered contracts to work but not under shady conditions as seemed to have been the case with Kwame Owusu.

He thinks he is smart but he is not. I shall be on his back if he dares me and by the time I publish ten articles about him, he will be a goner if and only if, Ghanaweb, Modernghana and Breakingnewsgh.com will publish my submitted articles. The media must please help me to fight the official corruption in Ghana in my own little way no matter who it is regarded.

I count on the incorruptibility of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to show his mettle by relieving Mr Kwame Owusu, a man stupidly full of himself, of his post. He must show him the way out of his public post. He is corrupt!