The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has praised the president’s swiftness in dismissing Charles Adu Boahen, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance.
It described the swiftness with which the dismissal letter was issued as a major tool for fighting speculations which was unhealthy for the fight against corruption.
Mr Boahen was dismissed after it emerged he allegedly said Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia could be paid $200,000 as an appearance fee to set up a meeting with investors.
“The president acting swiftly is critical to fighting corruption because some of these cases usually come up and not much action is taken and this fuels some of the speculation and perception around corruption in government, so this is swift and expeditious enough, and it is good for the country,” GII lauded.
Mary Addah, the Programmes Manager at GII, explained that noticing that he is the appointing authority, he also had the power to disappoint, and he had done so, but then he also recognised some of the alleged instances and inferences made, could bother on criminality and corruption and had referred the issue to the Office of the Special Prosecutor whose Act gave it the power to investigate issues relating to corruption.
However, she indicated that relieving Mr Boahen of his post was not enough, but what was needed was to clear the perception of the citizenry on corruption against the government was to proceed to investigate the allegation levelled against the vice president.
According to her, the vice president, in addition to what was put out would also serve better “if he calls for investigation into the allegation which has to do with his personal, professional credibility and will allow everyone to know the integrity he is speaking to and not just speaking as a mantra, but it is what he lives by and will want everyone to attest to same.
“It is difficult to uphold the government as committed to fighting corruption because of appointees that have been accused of corruption but are still actively serving and authoring dismissal letters, the person who authored the termination letter was cited by his wife for some domestic infractions, and she made certain allegations about properties he has acquired within the shortest time period and others.
“This is a president that promised us during his campaign all you need to do is to complain or make a complaint or present a case, and the investigation agencies will then take it up, he also promised he will use Anas’ principle to confirm some of the issues, so it becomes worrying when we do not see that being followed through,” Mrs Addah bemoaned.