The public purse you promised to protect is missing – Akufo-Addo told

A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) communications team, Beatrice Annan, has said that under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration, the public purse he swore to protect is missing.

According to her, the purse is currently hiding in the pockets of appointees of the president whiles the ordinary citizen is suffering to make ends meet.

“This President said I will protect the public purse, Annie today as we speak the purse is missing. Unless you find them in the pockets of people. The purse is missing,” she said.

Beatrice Annan made this position known while speaking on Ghana’s handling of the deadly COVID-19 on Accra-based Metro Television.

She believes that Ghana experienced two pandemics including the deadly COVID-19 and corruption.

“For me, COVID-19 looking back brought us two pandemics. The health pandemic and for us in Ghana, it brought us a Corruption pandemic as well. For the first time and I dare say in the history of the fourth republic, you have 12.8 billion cedis as monies being misappropriated under the guise of COVID-19 and for me that could have saved a life of a poor mother who went into labour who but for the absence of bed would have been with us today but had to lose the life."

She continued “that could have saved a lot of the unemployed youth who because of their known associations with members government or because they were born into a family that is not associated with the President or do not bear some surnames they can’t find jobs, that could have saved them. Anytime the discussion of COVID-19 comes up, it comes with so much pain because the people we put into office saw this pandemic as business to make profit. Governmental interventions were not because lives and livelihoods had to be saved but it was because someway, somehow lets see how we can make profit and I’m sure that even the 2021 Auditor General report will be more damning than even the 2020 report we saw”.

Beatrice Annan contended that “the COVID-19 in the year 2021 was just one of those years where there was so much competition among government officials on who can be more corrupt and who can outshine or acquire riverfront properties, buy the latest car. It was never about the citizens,” indicating that government made it a point to literally steal from the people who they represent."

She noted that it’s imperative that the government is held accountable for its spending during the period because “the corruption stinks, the dishonesty, the arrogance of power is just too much”.