Ghana Must Retrieve All Stolen State Cash

Yesterday, the citifmonline.com published a story, in which the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid assured the good people of this country that government will retrieve an amount of $4 million, embezzled by former top officials of the National Communications Authority (NCA).

They are; Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, former Board Chairman of the NCA; William Tevie, former Chief Executive Officer of the NCA and Alhaji Osman, former Deputy National Security Coordinator.

The Information Minister told the station that government is awaiting the outcome of the Bureau of National Investigation's (BNI) probe into the matter to take a decision on the fate of the culprits.

"Investigations are a long process, and as the lawyers will tell you, an act of criminality ought to be proven until beyond reasonable doubt and so my understanding from the BNI is that they haven't completed the investigations. They've gone beyond the statements and the admission and the paying back of the money that they have started," he explained.

The Chronicle wants to commend government for the initiative to go beyond just the statement and it is determined to recover the money back into the state's chest.

The issue of embezzling of state cash has become a ritual in today's Ghana, where politicians, civil and public servants have made it a point to siphon monies belonging to the state for their personal use.

For some time now, Captain Smart, host of Adom FM's flagship programme, Edwaso Nsem has been exposing government officials, especially civil and public servants who have been chopping state cash.

This morning, tens of thousands of Ghanaians would be converging at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange to begin a demonstration dubbed; "We'll retrieve our monies".

The protest, which is meant to present the names of all the top government officials, as well as civil and public servants to officials of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for them to be prosecuted.

From the atmosphere currently prevailing across the length and breadth of the country, many are those who have tampered with state cash and for which reason Ghanaians are calling for the heads of these nation wreckers.

Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is said to have called on the government to deal mercilessly with those who have looted state coffers and also confiscate their assets.

Also, Abdallah-Ali Nakyea, a Law of Taxation Lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, has called for stiffer punishment to any person found guilty of stealing from the state's coffers.

Mr. Nakyea said illicit financial flows by 'wicked' persons have gravely rendered Ghana impotent in development, the reason why majority of the people continue to wallow in abject poverty. Consequently, he noted that just naming and recovering monies stolen by such culprits would still excite other persons to engage in such criminal acts, because their actions would not attract any punishment.

The Chronicle is therefore calling on the government not to limit itself to the case of the NCA, because some of the looting are so heart breaking that one is compelled to go gaga on hearing of the magnitude of the embezzlement.

Another looting which is very fresh on the minds of the people is the Dr George Crentsil, former Executive Director of the Ghana Standards Board (GSA) who is alleged to have collected US$1.2 million kickback from a contractor undertaking construction works for the Authority.

To this end, The Chronicle is calling on government to factor all the other looting which have gone on in the country for the past few years and conduct serious investigations into them and ensure that all the offenders are not only punished, but also all monies the looted and interest retrieved.

The government can better still liaise with Captain Smart to get documents on all the looting which have gone on in the country for quick execution.

It is after we, as a nation have been able to name, shame, retrieve and punish looters of state cash that it will serve as deterrent for other potential plunderers to stay away from doing same.

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