The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked the NDC to pay for the cost of buses that have been branded with the picture of their presidential candidate and president.
This was contained in a press conference yesterday led by the party’s communications director, Nana Akomea.
He was of the opinion that the Mahama administration has proven to encourage stealing from the state by politically connected persons. Additionally he said through the failure of the president to apply punitive sanctions against people who use dubious means to take money from the public purse, the National Democratic Congress government is tacitly promoting corruption.
Late last year it emerged that GHS 3.6 million from petroleum revenues had been spent on branding 116 public buses with pictures of the current president and past democratically elected presidents of Ghana.
Chief of Staff Mr. Julius Debrah, wrote to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong to investigate the matter and report to him.
The A-G submitted a report saying amongst other things that the contract sum was hugely inflated. This forced the resignation of the then transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor.
Resigned Transport Min.
Government ordered the company that undertook the rebranding, Smarttys Management and Productions the company that did the branding, to refund 1.9 million cedis to the state. The amount has since been reduced to GHC1.5 million after an alleged tax deduction.
Matters Arising
The image of President Mahama on the branded buses is a worry for the NPP. According to Nana Akomea, using tax payers’ money to advertise the presidential candidate of the governing National Democratic Congress is an abuse of incumbency.
“This is an attempt to project President Mahama ahead of the 2016 elections”, he said.
Although the buses have black and white pictures of former presidents, Nana Akomea believes President Mahama is yet to make his contributions to the development of the country; therefore, his picture should not have been there.
“We still don’t know the full extent of his contributions”, he said, and concluded that “Our worry is not even with Smartty, our worry is with government”.
According to the NPP, the branding was done to project President John Dramani Mahama ahead of the upcoming elections.
Smarrty’s Boss
The party has also called on the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, to publish the full report of the Attorney-General on the branding of the buses.
“The entire bus rebranding project is a plot by the NDC government not only to dupe the nation, but also use the taxpayers’ money to project President Mahama’s image in the build up to this year’s elections,” he said.
Corruption under NDC deepens
As proposed by a Ghanaian investigative journalist Manasseh Azure, Nana Akomea said the branding of the buses could have been given to the advertising agencies which would have generated more income for the nation.
“Now not only has the nation lost that amount through the NDC government but Ghanaians have also lost monies that could have been generated if the rebranding had been given to an advertising firm,” he added.
Nana Akomea said if Ghanaians continued to allow the NDC government to continue in power, corruption which “is already sinking the nation will swallow everyone”.
Gyasi Appiah
