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Law on wilfully causing financial loss to
the state is inimical
Accra, Oct 23, GNA – The General Secretaries of four
political parties with representation in Parliament, on
Tuesday kicked against the law on ‘wilfully causing
financial loss to the state’, saying it was inimical to
national reconciliation.
In a joint press statement read on their behalf by Nana
Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the ruling NPP, the group
calling themselves the Platform of General Secretaries and
Policy Analysts (The Platform) called for the law to be
scrapped from the statute book.
“Having been briefed on the history and antecedents as a
well as the rationale for the law on ‘wilfully causing
financial loss to the state’ we are convinced that the
continued existence of that law on the statute books is
inimical to any genuine effort to promote national
reconciliation and goodwill among political parties and
players in the country,” he said.
The call came after weeks of deliberation on the causes and
effects of polarisation in the country, under the auspices
of the Ghana Political Parties Programme (GPPP), facilitated
and sponsored by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and
the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD).
Nana Ntow noted that beyond the call for that law to be
scrapped, the general secretaries of the four parties,
comprising, NPP, NDC, CPP and PNC were themselves committed
to undertaking the necessary education required to create an
appropriate environment that would enable the law to be
repealed.
He said the platform agreed that the country was polarised
along partisan, ethnic, chieftaincy, ideological,
generational, gender and economic lines, adding that on the
part of political parties, the general secretaries would
ensure that all official party policies, practices,
strategies, tactics and speeches were devoid of ethnic
sentiments.
They called for the strengthening of the National Peace
Council and the establishment of a multi-party National
Youth Conference among other things to ensure consistency in
the effort to achieve national reconciliation.
Nana Ntow noted that political
transition from one government to the other also engaged the
attention of the platform considerably, saying that the main
concerns had to do with the brevity of the transitional
period, the treatment of officials of the outgoing
government and investigations into the conduct of previous
government.
Other transitional issues included end-of-service benefits
for the departing political office holders and privileges of
former presidents.
He said the platform agreed that there was need to allow a
reasonably longer period between the declaration of a winner
in a presidential election and the actual swearing in of the
new president to enable sufficient time for efficient
handing over in the event of change from one party to
another.
Nana Ntow recalled that it took only four working days for
former President Jerry John Rawlings to prepare and hand
over power to President John Agyekum Kufuor, saying that,
that was not acceptable given that it took at least six
months to set up a government.
He noted that some of the issues discussed would require
constitutional and legal amendments and therefore called for
a National/International Conference on Amendments in 2013 on
the 20th anniversary of the constitution to consider
proposed amendments to the constitution.
Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah told the Ghana News Agency that
beyond the recommendations made in the joint statement the
various political parties would discuss the issues raised at
their party levels and come up with suggestions to inform a
memorandum that would be issued jointly to advice government
on which form the process should take.
Those who endorsed the statement included Professor Nii Noi
Dowuona, General Secretary of the CPP, Mr. Gabriel Pwamang,
for PNC, Mrs. Jean Mensa, IEA and Mr. Jasper Veen from NIMD.
GNA
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