Quality Grain Ruling Hunts Govt - Adjaho

Minority Chief Whip in Parliament, Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho (Avenor) has prophesied that the judgement in the Quality Grain issue would be a huge stumbling block to the ruling government. This is because the standard set by the ruling is so high that “none of the officials of this or any other government can meet the standards set. As a testimony, Mr. Adjaho was of the view that the creation of an Office of Accountability and the maximum publicity given the concept of “zero tolerance”, the country would have responded more positively than the 72nd ranking it received from the 2003 corruption perception index. “But if we are back to 1999 level, then it speaks for itself, the work that has been done so far, he said. But his worry did not lie with the placing. It lay with the 3.3 score mark. His conclusion? The New Patriotic Party has performed rather abysmally in terms of probity and accountability as compared to its predecessor – the NDC. MP Adjaho who was arguably the first member of the legislative body to lay hands on the report last Tuesday submitted that, having recently criticized its predecessor of massive corruption and gone further to set “that very high standard with the Quality Grain case, the NPP administration must be living in a wonderland indeed.” Suggestions? The Avenor MP thought there is the need for coherence in the government’s anti-corruption policy which means a more sustained fight against the canker and the strengthening of such established anti-corruption bodies as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which he described as weak. As for the Office of Accountability, Mr. Adjaho was of the view that the credentials of the head of the Office in fighting corruption are not convincing enough to suggest that she is capable of the role. Moreover, “her independence also remains in doubt,” he added. Mr. Adjaho, however suggested that Defense Minister,. Kwame Addo Kufuor (MP) who he described “my good friend” (minus the controversial helicopter story) and Senior Minister, J. H. Mensah (MP) (“minus 1 billion dollar IFC loan) are personalities who are independent enough even with their positions in the NPP administration, and have the credentials to head the accountability office and fight corruption. Adjaho’s views were collaborated by the former head of the Ghana branch of Integrity Initiative Yaw Buabeng Asamoah who also told the Network Herald that the seeming failure to fight corruption is mainly due to the lack of coherence in the government’s efforts at curbing the canker. Mr. Asamoah lamented that in spite of the government’s efforts as seen in the laws and measures aimed at checking corruption, the fight is seemingly being lost because it does not register. He suggested strongly that government links up with the various anti-corruption agencies in the country that have the wealth of experience in order to reduce not only the perception but also the canker of corruption.