The opposition National Democratic Congress has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Muhammadu Bawumia of spearheading dissipation of the public purse through corruption.
Speaking at a press conference to respond to one held by the NPP last week, National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, labelled the NPP presser as an attempt to cover up for the “unprecedented levels of corruption” witnessed under the NPP administration.
Citing a tall list of scandals including the BOST Movinpiina scandal, the PDS, PPA, Ameri novation deal and the recent Sputnik V scandals, Mr Gyamfi said these showed that President Akufo-Addo was leading a “cabal of family and friends” determined to loot the public purse.
“Ghanaians recall how in the year 2019, PDS a company made up of an appointee and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, used a “fraudulent” Insurance Guarantee to takeover the GHc20 billion assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana. This scam was occasioned and facilitated by the Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Bawumia to amend the requirement of a bank guarantee that has to be provided by the concessionaire (PDS) into an Insurance guarantee, the validity of which government deliberately refused to authenticate so they could capture that important state asset, ECG for the family and friends of President Akufo-Addo. Even more bizarre and sad is the fact that till date, PDS has refused to refund to the State the electricity bills worth over GHc1.2 billion which they collected from ECG customers during the pendency of the ECG-PDS concession Agreement,” Sammy Gyamfi said.
Sammy Gyamfi recounted how “Vice President, Dr. Bawumia procured an already existing Asaase GPS app, at a cost of a whopping US$2.5 million (i.e about 110 billion old Ghana cedis at the time) and branded it as a GhanaPost GPS app for Ghanaians which he claimed was more advanced than the GPS systems of advanced counties such as the UK, Germany, Sweden etc. This was despite the fact that the original app was already available and accessible to all Ghanaians for free, hence, there was no need for government to have paid that a huge sum of money for that app.”
Again, he said Ghanaians have not forgotten “how President Akufo-Addo in the year 2018 sort to personally defraud the State by giving executive approval for the Ameri-Novation deal, the cost of which had been inflated by US$800 million dollars. But for the vigilance of the NDC minority in Parliament and certain patriotic Civil Society Organizations, that is how much President Akufo-Addo would have stolen from the state through that transaction alone”
Mr Gyamfi insisted that “We have not forgotten how President Akufo-Addo and his cabal of family friends sort to capture and appropriate Ghana’s gold royalties for themselves through the infamous ‘Agyapa’ deal. Here again, but for the vigilance of the NDC minority in Parliament, certain patriotic Civil Society Organizations, and the Special Prosecutor at the time, Martin Amidu, President Akufo-Addo and his cronies would have captured our national gold royalties for the next fifteen (15) years. In fact, as we speak the millions of monies that were paid by the government to African Legal Associates, a law firm owned by a cousin to the President, Gabby Otchere Darko have not been refunded to the State. This is despite the fact that the State hasn’t benefited in any way from the shady ‘Agyapa’ deal which has been suspended by the President.”
He further alleged that “Ghanaians have also not forgotten about the PPA “Donkomi” Contracts for sale scandal in which the then Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority, Mr A.B Adjei and his agents were caught on tape selling government contracts that had been awarded by certain Ministries and government agencies to his private company, Talent Discovery Limited in flagrant disregard for the Public Procurement Act. Indeed, investigations conducted by the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) revealed that Mr A.B Adjei siphoned and stashed millions of Ghana cedis totalling over GHc34 million (i.e 340 billion old cedis) into his personal bank account, the source of which he could not explain or justify. Also, we have not forgotten how President Akufo-Addo after appointing dozens of his family”
Mr Gyamfi defended Former President Mahama’s call for Ghanaians to vote out the NPP in the 2024 elections as a way of ensuring that they account for their stewardship,insisting is was the only to hold the NPP to account because the party was unwilling to account for its stewardship.
Mr Mahama had during his thank you tour of some regions in the northern part of the country, made the call during a radio interview. His call attracted criticism from the NPP who said the Former was abusing his tour to launch attacks on the government.
