The Africa Development Council (ADC) is calling for a full-scale investigation into what it describes as wanton abuse and neglect of state resources under the Akufo-Addo administration, demanding the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) initiative be deployed immediately to trace and retrieve misused public funds.
In a statement on May 27, the Council expressed outrage at what it called “recklessness” by former government officials who, instead of using existing state infrastructure, opted for personal gain at the taxpayers’ expense. “The ADC has noticed with great concern, the level of recklessness in terms of abandonment of State Machinery by the previous regime on the altar of self-aggrandisement,” the statement said.
The Council said the situation within Ghana’s Foreign Affairs sector was worse than imagined.
According to the group, instead of occupying official residences designated for Regional Coordinating Councils and Ambassadors, officials allegedly preferred to lodge in private hotels-leaving government properties to deteriorate while the state paid for expensive accommodation.
“Residencies of Regional Coordinating Councils were left to rot, while personal hotels were used instead, with the State footing the bills” the Council noted. It singled out the Russian Federation as a recent example, claiming that Ghana’s diplomatic residence there was left idle while state funds were spent on hotel stays for the Ambassador. The ADC is urging the ORAL Taskforce to act swiftly and decisively.
“The ORAL Team must investigate and retrieve all sums of money that were unnecessarily billed the State” the statement charged.
The Council further recommended that the current administration should, without delay, recall or reshuffle Ghana’s diplomatic staff across the globe to sanitise the system and end entrenched practices of waste and indiscipline. In what appears to be another blow to Ghana’s diplomatic reputation, the ADC revealed that even land gifted to the country under reciprocal bilateral arrangements had been left undeveloped.
“Ghana was given some plots of land to build its own Embassy, yet those plots of land still remain unutilised. This happened in the Russian Federation” the Council stated. Calling for a generational shift in leadership thinking, the ADC concluded that it is time Ghana abandoned short-term, ad-hoc governance for long-range planning that prioritizes public interest and sustainability. is time the leadership of the country began to think beyond the current generation, to do away with an ad-hoc style of leadership” the statement urged.
Source: #efoawumidjiszetionnews
