The Minority has accused president Akufo-Addo of tacitly endorsing corruption as a result of his failure to comment on the scandal that hit the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST).
The MD for BOST, Alfred Obeng Boateng, last month sanctioned the sale of 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpiina, a transaction the minority has described as “gravely smelly.”
As a result, Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko constituted an eight-member committee to probe the circumstances leading to the sale of the off-spec product.
But even before work of the committee takes off, the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) cleared the BOST MD of any wrongdoing.
Nonetheless, according to Mr. Agyarko, who announced the BNI findings Tuesday July 4, 2017 at a press conference the eight-member committee will still go ahead with its work. But it will not probe allegations that had already been responded to by the BNI and the National Security, he added.
Reacting to the recent development at a counter press conference Wednesday, the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu said the exoneration of the BOST MD is an indication of the presidency’s unpreparedness to the fight against corruption.
“The signs are now crystal clear that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government has no commitment to fighting corruption,” he bemoaned.
He added “What we have been treated to in this embarrassing spectacle is a new Government that has arrived to dash the hopes of many Ghanaians by entrenching the canker of corruption.
“Now we know that the NPP’s approach to fighting corruption is holding Press Conferences to equalize as the Majority in Parliament shamelessly exhibited last week. We in the Minority will not obstruct justice – if there has been any wrongdoing by any Ghanaian, let that person be taken through due process.”
According to Mr. Iddrisu, following revelations by a Member of Parliament on the Majority side alleging that the beleaguered BOST MD was a major financier of the presidential campaign of Akufo-Addo and that Mr. Obeng Boateng is untouchable – “it is now obvious to many a Ghanaian that under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government there will be different strokes for different folks.”
He said “NPP financiers who loot state coffers and engage in unbridled corruption will be left off the hook under his watch. In any case, this distasteful episode affords us an exclusive insight into how people came by their appointments under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government. These are very troubling times for our motherland.”
