Law on wilfully causing financial loss to the stateNPP guru cautions against use as tool…against political opponents

A KUMASI-based founding father of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. George Ayisi-Boateng, has cautioned against the use of the law on willfully causing financial loss to the state for political vendetta.

The Criminal Procedure law section 179 sub-section 3, explicitly states that “whoever causes a loss, damage or injury, through the willful act or omission to public property, or endangers security of the sovereign of Ghana commits an offence.”

He said once politicians are elected to hold resources in trust for the people, they need to give account of their stewardship, and should embrace the concept of probity and accountability, which process, he said, should be devoid of hatred, envy and antagonism.

According to Mr. Ayisi-Boateng, even though there are traces of elements of causing financial loss to the state in the past seven months by ministers of state, the impression now is that only officials of the past government had fallen foul of the law.

The NPP founding father, in an interview with The Chronicle, said so long as the law was in use, governments should not be seen to encourage wrongdoing by government officials who are spared the dictates of the laws.

The NPP man feared that if nothing was done about it, it would continue to be used as a political tool and a yardstick against opponents whenever there was a change of government, and called on legislators to have a second look at it.

Mr. Ayisi-Boateng expressed surprise at how the present government had turned round to persecute, harass and witchhunt past government officials with the law.

He referred to then vice presidential candidate, Mr. John Mahama's admission that the law was inimical, and needed to be reviewed.

The NPP member frowned on the double standards the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was playing, against the background that then candidate Prof. John Atta Mills also once spoke vehemently against the law

In view of these developments, Mr. Ayisi-Boateng has suggested that the law be expunged from the statute books, if governments are not prepared to use it in the spirit for which it was passed.

He also called on legal brains to look at the law critically, and make amendments where necessary.