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| Zero Tolerance At Nana Addo''s Home |
10/31/2006 |
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Some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members in the Abuakwa South constituency have regretted that while the president is fighting against corruption, some strong party members are rather covering up other corrupt ones. The constituency executives who spoke directly to this reporter emphasized that they are pursuing the party and the President’s policy of zero tolerance for corruption to the very letter, noting that the regional executives who stepped in and instituted a probe are insulting their intelligence.
They said they would not allow anyone to use his standing to thwart them, even if it meant sacrificing the presidential ambitions of Nana Addo, whose aides are alleged to be accessories in the cover-up. They are at a loss as to why petitioners of party members who embezzled the MP’s Common Fund should be described as witch hunters who should be silenced while those who were implicated are presented as saints.
NPP members passed these remarks when this reporter, upon a tip-off that the constituency office had been vandalized, visited the area a fortnight ago. The names of Mr. Yaw Amfo Kwakye (cousin of Nana Addo, whom he made the official Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and who was also once a Managing Director of The Statesman), Hillary Danquah and one Beyie came up during our investigations as being behind the break-in at the party office around midnight of a Thursday some three weeks ago.
When contacted over the telephone, Mr. Yaw Amfo Kwakye denied ever going to vandalize the constituency office with the two others named. He said the landlord had called to remind him that the tenancy agreement had expired and that they needed to negotiate a new one if they wished to continue holding the premises as their party constituency office.
According to him, the landlord had also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that out of internal wrangling within the party, some party members had locked up the office without instructions from any party executive member, compelling the landlord to demand that his accommodation be returned to him.
Mr. Amfo Kwakye said he and other members, not satisfied, refused to enter into a new agreement with the landlord and decided to collect the office furniture to a new office they had secured in Kyebi.
"We rented the office, and when we did not want to keep the office, we decided to pick up the equipment and furniture to a newly rented office,” he said.
Another Akufo Addo Their rationale was that the furniture and office files were bought by the MP and since they were no more using that office, they were simply transferring the property to a new office they had rented.
Incidentally, the vandalized office had been NPP constituency office since1992. Sometime last year, the rent advance expired and the embattled constituency executives refused to pay any more rent; so Okyenheneba Yaw Takyi, an elder of the constituency branch, paid up the rent.
Having spearheaded the fight for justice in the constituency over the embezzlement of the MP’s common fund by calling for probe, the goons decided to remove the office equipment and send them to the newly-rented location elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the petitioners say they have had the opportunity to study the report on the embezzlement probe submitted by the Eastern Regional disciplinary committee and found it seriously flawed.
The recommendations contradicted the findings, where a more serious impression was created by the failure of the party’s regional office to issue a covering paper either rejecting or accepting the holdings, findings and recommendations of the committee.
Serious doubt was created as to whether the regional office either underrated the intelligence of the petitioners or considered the whole matter as an issue to be brushed aside.
Commenting further on the committee’s report on the petition signed and issued by Abu Bonsrah first vice chairman, Georgina Anim, treasurer and Emma Obeng, assistant secretary said the committee’s report fell short of proper probe conducted since the accused persons were left off the hook as the committee found Kwasi Okyere executed the job on behalf of the company Abuakwa network and that he accessed the funds in July to October 2005 respectively.
The committee also found that Okyere received and signed for 37.5 million cedis though the signature in the July petty cash voucher could neither be attributed to him nor be easily verified.
It was found that the job was executed in the first quarter of 2006. Even so, the distribution sheet, which bears the names and the supposed signature of the recipient, were undated as Kwasi Kyere was found receiving separately two million cedis for distribution of the materials.
While Okyere was found wanting on other grounds, the petitioners held that for the same committee to hold that Mr. Kwasi Okyere acted in his private capacity and answerable only to the MP, Nana Akufo Addo, who appointed him, only flies in the face of the demand for probity and accountability in the use of public funds, which the MP’s common fund was.
Strange still is the committee’s recommendation that it could not find Kwasi Okyere personally responsible for the delay in execution of the jobs, but laid the blame on the company, Abuakwa Network Limited.
“We find this recommendation very strange because though a company has an artificial personality, it works through people who have natural personality. “All the evidence adduced shows that Kwasi Okyere took the money, took his share for transport, but did nothing for six long months.
“How could an entity like the company be blamed in the circumstances by the committee?” the petitioners demanded to know. The petitioners asked the committee not to take the existence of deep hatred and antagonism towards the three executive members, both at the constituency and polling station levels, therefore asking the constituency to take steps to reverse the polarization.
“We think that the conduct of the three officers cannot be condoned; it cannot be excused either. It is patently criminal, as it is already in the public domain and all are watching what we will do as a party,” they held.
Accordingly, the disservice the committee did was not asking for their removal or even a reprimand, saying the polarization that the committee has observed cannot be reversed until the officers are removed. It was made clear that the danger of anybody using his powers or clout in the party to stand in the way of the majority could spell the doom of the NPP in the constituency and for that matter the presidential ambition of the area’s MP, Nana Akufo Addo.
They concluded that they are not rebels but only want to ensure compliance with the party’s principles of zero tolerance for corruption.
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