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Wayome-gate, the sad case of Weak
Executive Management or Criminal collusion
By Kwaku A. Danso
The Woyome Case has left me dumbfounded and speechless on
our Ghana Leadership Union (GLU) forum. As moderator that is
unusual. I appealed to people to vote for President Mills in
November to December 2008 and I am sorely disappointed! I
feel totally disappointed and don’t even know what to think
of our nation of Ghana anymore! Why with such good people we
never seem to get the right leaders with the right intent,
motives, love and skills to help us get out of the perpetual
poverty brought about mostly due to greed of a few and
corruption! Every indicator of potential economic forecast
would predict Ghana to be a rich nation, but the last half
century has created only a nation of mostly liars and a few
who get into government and become public thieves through
back-door benefit packages as well as outright con games and
schemes!! This Woyome case beats all intellectual debate!
Prof. Kwaku Asare (Azar) posted this from Florida, USA,
quoting former President Kufuor:
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 12:13:58 PM
Subject: Kufuor Has Hit a Home Run with this Statement
"They said my government contracted with Woyome to find us
money and I am saying my government didn’t give any contract
to Woyome….but if they say we gave contract to Woyome, then
we are saying put Kufuor before this Commission and then
quiz Kufuor for the truth to come out and I will do the same
with the current government… For the President to direct
that we should appear before EOCO, his
creation….incidentally the law also makes EOCO answerable to
the Attorney General office, but by all the accounts the
office of primary suspicion is the Attorney General’s
office.
So why do we go before EOCO to investigate behind closed
doors and at the end of the day, EOCO submits report to the
Attorney General’s office, the office of first suspect in
this whole saga for some story to issue before a public
enquiry takes place.” (John Agyekum Kufuor).
David N. wrote this on Okyeame Forum and cross posted to GLU:
“Azar, You know what Kuffour said is BS. One, if a public
enquiry, the culprits cannot be prosecuted because we all
know what happened with the evidence of the Ghana @50
investigation. Kuffour knows if this happens, he and his
cronies in the NPP will walk free. Secondly, why is he
prepared to talk in public but not in private. I have never
heard such cow manure in my life, and you think this is a
home run? Good night!
Alhaji (D. Nanang, 02/02/2012, at 11:38 AM)
Prof. George K-O wrote from Australia:
David, The NPP strategy is to have a public enquiry and drag
it out till or toward the elections so they can gain
political capital. They are not interested in getting the
money back from Woyome by whatever means, nor the chips
falling where they may. It is all politics. ,,,,I would
support the NDC strategy any day just as I would have
supported the NPP and Kuffour if they had followed that
strategy with respect to Ghana@50, among others.
George (Wednesday, February 01, 2012 7:27 PM).
Folks, it is hard to let this Woyome case go away without
making a public comment. I think comments by David, George
and Azar, if we take the politics out, make sense. Whiles
President Kufuor (2001-2009) promised a zero tolerance for
corruption, the general perception was that his
administration was very corrupt. Ghana’s Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International did not
show any improvement and actually dipped under Kufuor. It
has not done better under Mills and not with these scandals!
Ghana under President Kufuor –
It is unfortunate for Ghana to refer to past misbehavior for
evaluating a current case of obvious financial malfeasance
or corruption. Some schools of thought described the tall
flamboyant former President Kufuor as a very clever thief!
It appears he uses his God-given talent only to take
advantage of situations. To many who write comments on many
open media if one studies them, Kufuor appears like a crook
and a thief who always gets away! Period! This was a very
bad example for a man who took office with promise to
prosecute corruption under a “golden age of business”. Yes,
many of his supporters got lucrative contracts and became
rich but how did that translate into a more open and
respectable atmosphere of doing business in a golden Ghana!
Under Kufuor, the last time a public inquiry took place
under the Ghana@50 it was never prosecuted! Ghana lost
massive amount of money due to fraud, abuse of power,
excessive overdrafts and cost overruns in excess of $50-100
million without parliamentary approval. All of these should
have been declared illegal and criminally actionable. Never
did anybody go to jail! We had a similar situation in the
Jubilee House construction projects where moneys went into
excessive multi-million dollar overspend and nobody was held
accountable due to our very poor, weak and almost impotent
parliament! Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori, the only man in the NPP
party who would stand up against such excessive spending and
legislative and executive misbehavior, was removed from the
Chairmanship of the finance committee without reason. That
is the smell of executive collusion in corruption! Period!
Poor Prosecution Lawyers –
Having good effective prosecuting lawyers is important. Some
prominent lawyers on our forum have admitted that after law
school at Legon, the AG office does not attract but the
weakest of the graduates due to poor pay. As such it appears
the Attorneys prosecuting cases for our nation are poorly
paid and not of the “superior intelligence” breed (if we can
use a description by Nana Kyei). We all know or should
understand law is like any competitive profession. The
stronger and smarter lawyers of higher intelligence argue
best, find the best cases, present them well, and win!
The sad irony of Ghana is that the NDC seems to be following
the same clever thieving-without prosecution methods. Of
course the NPP also would claim they were following a
culture of public theft under the NDC which has continued
from the illegal regime of Jerry Rawlings and his PNDC.
President Mills is now calling for all payments of the
government in the last 20 or so years before any action is
taken! That will never end up in any prosecution of anybody!
In Ghana this will never end. It is symptomatic of a clever
thief’s strategy.
What we need to answer is if President Mills, the same man
called Professor Atta Mills, humble man of peace, a
professed good Christian, trusted by friends and allies, was
involved in, knew of, or approved this massive con game and
public theft! If Mills was not aware, why not! Where was he?
Did this case which took several months, never get discussed
at Cabinet meetings? Who will believe this?
The sad conclusion –
In conclusion, whether this Woyome case gets prosecuted is
another matter, but we all need to know the truth. So far
simple logic indicates the President was aware of it since
no Minister in our native land of ours, Betty Mould Iddrisu,
a woman who seems modest and even said she herself is poor,
will dare approve or authorize disbursement cited as from
$30 million (Ghc48 million or so at Ghc1.6/$) to $37 million
(Ghc59 million) and write a letter asking the Minister of
Finance to pay it, without the President knowing about it.
No way! The Minister of Finance also cannot convince anybody
he did this without ever informing the President.
There is no way on earth or Heaven President Mills is going
to get away without the truth coming out. His firing of the
Attorney General Martin Amidu makes the case more
suspicious! The resignation of former Minister of Justice
and Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu will not solve the
matter or let it go away.
It is better those close to President Mills to advise him to
do the right thing and do it now! The EOCO investigation
would seem to be in conflict. I know in our Ghanaian and
African culture we are usually “afraid” of confronting our
elders, employers, Professors and leaders. However this is
critical for the survival of the man, his adopted political
party, his own personal character and integrity, and for the
sustenance and viability of our democracy.
It is highly recommended:
1. The speaker of the House of Parliament, in cooperation
with the Chief Justice, take the leadership role and appoint
an independent Judicial panel with power to submit all
findings to the courts for prosecution. Cases like this have
happened in the US during the Water Gate incidence where
President Richard Nixon was implicated. The result was an
impeachment hearing and the resignation of President Nixon.
2. The courts should order Mr. Woyome to refund the moneys
to an Escrow account immediately till this case settles. A
temporary freezing of assets will be a good idea.
3. All parties involved or implicated, including the former
President Kufuor and current President Atta Mills, former
Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu and Martin Amidu and
all employees of the AG office should refrain from any
public statements until they are called to testify.
Incumbent President Mills should make himself available for
inquiry.
4. A time limit should be given for this independent
investigation, and should not go beyond six months! Some of
the people involved were associated with the PNDC
commissions of inquiry or other investigations in which
people suspected were given a week or two to produce all
their evidence or condemned, and some had assets seized.
With all the back-door tea drinking and brown-envelope
emoluments, this case should be put on a fast track and
ruled at least two months before the November elections.
All the best,
Kwaku A. Danso, PhD (Email: k.danso@comcast.net)
President- Ghana Leadership Union and Moderator, GLU Forum
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