Will Kufuor Be Responsible?

There is no doubt that all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies have categories of employees among whom are; Civil and Public Servants who have permanent tenure, and like the proverbial prostitute will serve any new client (government) faithfully, honestly and with all dedication to the best of their abilities.

By and large they are, and must be immune to the politics of the day or so their training says, and they have survived many regimes from pre-colonial days through Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to Jerry Rawlings to present day Kufuor’s NPP government, though there have been an attempt in the past, like Kofi Abrefa Busia’s wicked dismissal of 568 Civil and Public Servants in 1970, in his attempt to purge the Civil and Public services of elements who in his warped mind were unrepentant Nkrumahists, and whom he could not trust to work faithfully for him as Prime Minister. That unprecedented action became known as the famous “Apollo 568 Salla case”, and when the case went to court Busia and his Progress Party(PP) lost miserably.

Then there are the political appointees consisting of Sector Ministers, Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers, Special Assistants, Assistants to Special Assistants, and Spokespersons of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government. These Ministries, Departments and Agencies are headed by the political appointees enumerated above, and they must and do take complete responsibilities for the various institutions they head. This has always been the norm under all governments from Adam to the present Kufuor administration. In this regard, all praise and credit for good work done in these institutions go to the political appointees and by extension the government of the day which actually claims and boasts of those credits and achievements and uses them as propaganda in canvassing support among the voting populace. The Civil or Public Servants who work at these places, no matter their ranks or positions are not the ones who receive praise for any good work done.

So what? So what has changed all of a sudden, such that monumental failures of proper supervision or was it connivance at the various ministries, departments and agencies resulting in the naked embezzlement of huge sums of money belonging to poor Ghanaians amounting to trillions of Cedis are being blamed on poor Civil Servants at the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The current revelations at the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament hearings under the full glare of President Kufuor’s ministers and other appointees are most truly nauseating indeed. And come to think of it, they are telling us that the blame for such monumental failures should be put on the heads of Technocrats at those Ministries, Departments and Agencies as if the ministers and other appointees of the President who head these setups do not have any responsibilities for those institutions whatsoever.

For once, can’t President Kufuor and his cohorts accept a little responsibility for their failures as human beings and set about correcting their short-comings in the interest of poor Ghanaians whose sweat and toil, day and night, provide them the comfort that come with the luxurious livestyles they enjoy today? They have been so ashamed of these revelations of the massive embezzlements in which they have been so glaringly caught that they have clandestinely ordered the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation(GBC) to cease the live telecasting of the proceedings in order to hide their massive thievery and loot of Ghanaians.

But come to think of it, the office of the President under his Media Spokesman Andrew Awuni, instead of burying his head in his palms in utter shame, had rather sought to deceive Ghanaians once again with their antics in a sort of press statement that betrayed their shameless attitude to the issue of corruption. Here he goes, “ President Kufuor supports the public sittings of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament as it falls perfectly in line with the government’s aspirations of "Zero Tolerance for Corruption”. But which fool does not know that, that cliché coined to fool us, has long gone dead with the massive corruption perpetuated by this government even at the Castle itself. That statement is a complete lie and a fraud committed against us. All of us should watch and see if the Kufuor government will take any actions against those who have stolen these huge sums of money from our public coffers.If they were so much in favour of these public hearings, why was it that they have gone behind the scenes to order the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation(GBC) to cease broadcasting the hearings live?

And hear them again; “revelations at the sittings should therefore not be looked upon as the failure of the government, but on the contrary the triumph of a new regime and a new culture that must be upheld and rewarded”. What a warped thinking. This is a regime that has exhausted its two terms of four years each, and is on its way out of power. Yet, they still think they are a new regime as if they were inaugurated into office yesterday. You see, these people are still sleeping? They do not even know that their time is up, and that they are on their way out of government. They are still mired in their old self conceited deceitful ways, thinking that they could always deceive Ghanaians. Seven and a half years have passed them by and they have not realized that, that is enough time for Ghanaians to know who, and what they are, and stand for? A bunch of self seeking thieves who will stop at nothing and would do everything and anything to sell this country, if it will benefit them, their cronies, friends, relatives and sons-in-law, damn everybody else.

And now hear them for the last time on their knees. “The press and media commentators should refrain from the skewed analysis and the tendency to misrepresent facts; they should rather ensure circumspection and high professionalism and avoid pointing accusing fingers or judging public officials who appeared before the committee as criminals. They should wait for the law to take its cause”.

Ghanaians must know that the accounts being examined now were for the year 2004 and have been made available to the government through the sector ministers, and heads of departments and agencies long before now. One wonders what action they had taken on these reports until now. For the past three and a half years, they have done nothing. And they will do nothing in the foreseeable future, for they are aware that those Civil and Public Servants on whose heads they are heaping the blame will reveal the truth if they the political heads should attempt any funny tricks in the name of recovering those monies.

To those Civil Servants and Technocrats at these Ministries, Departments and Agencies, they must know that SOONER than later, this NPP government will fall. If they continue to blindly carry out the corrupt wishes of the political heads under whom they work, without questioning their propriety, they would be the ones to face the bitter music when the time comes. And that time will not be far off. Already, the fact that government appointees and political heads are exonerating themselves from these appalling corrupt practices at the various institutions and putting them on the heads of the Civil and Public Servants is well demonstrated at these public hearings and must be a lesson to all Civil and Public Servants. The NPP is a master of the art of lying, and since 2001, when they have been in government, they have polished it to perfection. Their dexterity in this game is attested to by many who have fallen into their traps.

There is no doubt whatsoever, that the rot in our state institutions as revealed by these public hearings at the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee must be laid squarely and without any hesitation at the door step of President Kufuor at the Castle and from there to the Minstries, Departments and Agencies. Their political heads must answer for their huge failures. They have set not a single example for their subordinates to follow. From scandal upon scandal dating from GIZEL YATZY to Hotel de Waa Waa to Kwamena Bartels-daughter and -son-in-law and ¢4,000,000,000 Ghana government free credit, they have set no example worthy of emulation by anybody. They are now busy repudiating their basic responsibilities for their own failures.

SO WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THESE, AND WHO MUST ANSWER FOR THEM? KUFUOR OR ?

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