Mahama’s code of ethics needless - Nana Akomea

Director of Communications of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea has pooh-poohed President Mahama’s code of ethics for his appointees, saying it is uninspiring to the fight against massive corruption in government.

According to him, President Mahama does not need the code of ethics to prosecute government officials implicated in corrupt deals.

President Mahama on Monday launched a code of ethics for ministers and other political appointees with the view to guiding them on issues about bribery, conflict of interest, corruption and other malpractices.

The president said although various codes of ethics had been drawn up over the years, the current one was to complement that efforts, and fully give the appointees the right atmosphere to perform their duties creditably in their areas of jurisdiction.

He stressed that the codes would also guide ministers and other political appointees: "to do what is right and do things in the right way."

But speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii-Sen programme on Monday, Nana Akomea noted that the code of ethics are mere written document which would yield no reasonable results due to the government’s own ineptitude in the fight against corruption.

He accused President Mahama of practicing ancient style of leadership, when he had promised to deliver to Ghanaians new post-independence style of leadership.

He stressed: “The talk is becoming too much. President Mahama said he was born after independence promising to deliver something new because he had no colonial mentality, but this code shows he is following the colonial style. This style is archaic because we want to see the action being [done] rather than mere words”.

The former Youth and Employment minister under the erstwhile Kufuor administration posited that the introduction of code of conduct for appointees is no news because there has always been one. “I don’t see the need because there has always been code of ethics for ministers”.

Nana Akomea asserted that if President Mahama wants Ghanaians to take the code seriously then he should prosecute government officials involved in the payment of wrongful debts to Waterville, Woyome and others.

He stressed that the Supreme Court recently in a judgement implicated some government officials for creating, looting and sharing money belonging to the state by paying illegal monies to people.

Punitive action must be taken immediately in this regard and not the adoption of a code of ethics, he added.

He admonished the president to walk the talk on his promise to fight corruption in government because without it the code of ethics is needless.