Govt’s record makes NDC obvious choice — Omane Boamah
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has labelled some assertions made by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on government projects as total fabrications and falsehoods.
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Refuting allegations by the flag bearer of the largest opposition party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, said their claims were all lies.
He was speaking at the last in the meet-the-press series for the year held by the Ministry of Communications.
The meet-the-press, which is held for all government ministries, is aimed at disseminating the government’s policies and programmes and affording the press the opportunity to ask questions on nagging issues.
The last press conference was also used to trumpet the achievements of the government in four years in the areas of education, health, infrastructure development, sports and in the fight against corruption.
Dr Boamah therefore, made it clear that on the record of achievements chalked up by the NDC government, the good people of Ghana would renew the mandate of the NDC on December 7.
Plethora of lies
Making a numerical presentation of statements he described as lies, Dr Boamah said, “On December 9, 2014, the NPP flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, at the Alhaji Aliu Mahama memorial lectures, lied about the cost of the Kasoa interchange and insisted it had been inflated.
Not even facts to correct the obvious misinformation from an NPP Minority Ranking Member of Parliament on Roads and Transport Committee could satisfy him.”
Dr Boamah also said that on October 19, 2015, “Nana lied about some US$10 million spent by the government to print diaries,” adding that the third falsehood was on October 21, 2015, when the NPP flag bearer said at a gathering in Amsterdam that the government and the Electoral Commission (EC) were scheming to rig Election 2016 when he had no proof.
He also indicated that a statement made by Nana Akufo-Addo at an NPP Delegates Conference in Sunyani on December 19, 2015 that all government projects had been awarded to enrich government officials was a total fabrication.
The Communications Minister also labelled as a lie a statement the NPP flag bearer made on February 29, 2016 that the cost of the Ridge Hospital project had been inflated.
Turning his attention to Dr Bawumia, Dr Boamah said “the lies by the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana are even more disingenuous.
“On March 26, 2015, he lied at a lecture at the Central University that the African Development Bank had suspended Ghana the previous month and we were still on suspension as of the time he was delivering the lecture, which the bank denied.”
He said another statement made by the running mate that the NDC government had borrowed US$37 billion was later proved to be untrue.
Corruption
Touching on governance, transparency, peace and security, Dr Boamah said “over the last four years, credible steps have been taken to make corruption an unattractive venture” as happened in the National Service and Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) cases.
“We all feel frustrated sometimes by the slow pace of the judiciary to our process. Let us trust our institutions to deliver justice consistent with the law,” he said.
He said the government was currently implementing the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP), a 10-year action plan adopted by Parliament, as a non-partisan document and a blueprint for fighting corruption.
Dr Boamah said it was to confirm the inroads made by the government in the fight against corruption that Transparency International had listed Ghana as the seventh least corrupt country in Africa.
He stated that on year-by-year basis the NDC’s record in fighting corruption had been better than that of the NPP’s best record as captured by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
Judgement debts
On judgement debts, the Communications Minister alleged that some politicians were working with a small section of the media aligned to them to discredit the government and said “but they will not succeed because the truth is on our side.”
He said the current government had fought judgement debt cases and potential cases more vigorously than previous governments, referring to page 154 of the government’s “Accounting to the People” publication.
Dr Boamah said the government had in four years saved the country over US$1 billion in judgement debt payments, citing that in the case involving Balkan Energy, the government fought to reduce a demand for US$200 million to US$12 million.
“It serves no purpose if we play political football with judgement debts,” he stated, adding “let us as a nation fight judgement debts. Let us all support the NACAP, instead of seeking to score political points because that offers sanctuaries for criminals to escape genuine scrutiny.”
