Former appointees asked to return state vehicles

Page 3: Daily Graphic, April 30, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ALL former government appointees who served under the Kufuor administration and are still in possession of state vehicles which are less than two years old have been given up to the end of this week to return them.
All other appointees who paid less than the value of the vehicles are also to top up their payments before they can legally take possession of them.
A Deputy Information Minister, Mr Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, who gave the directives at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said more than 50 of such vehicles, including 18 which were less than two years, were still in the possession of former appointees under the Kufuor government.
He said the government had made several approaches to the affected appointees but only a few of them had responded, adding that the Presidency, as part of its cost-cutting measures, was not in the mood to buy new vehicles, making some Ministers and Deputy Ministers using their personal vehicles.
He expressed regret that contrary to a February 23, 2005 circular, issued by the former Chief of Staff, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, that vehicles being requested to be bought by users should not be less than two years, such vehicles were not only bought but also undervalued.
Moreover, he said, the government also granted a 30-per cent rebate to the prospective buyers “even after the ridiculous values placed on the vehicles”.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa, who was supported by his colleague Deputy Minister, Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, cited that a 2008 Peugeot 607 saloon car in possession of Madam Cecilia Dapaah was valued for her at GH¢6,500, Dr Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim also had his valued at GH¢13,200 and Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, whose 2007 Peugeot saloon car was valued for him at GH¢5,450.
Fortunately, he said, most of those vehicles had not been transferred to the buyers.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said but for the exercise mounted by the security agencies to retrieve state vehicles, a number of New Patriotic Party (NPP) officials who drove away a number of vehicles would not have returned them.
He said it appeared to the government that the NPP officials and their hangers-on were waiting for the so-called invasion of the security agencies before they returned the cars and help them to build their non-lethal arsenal of false complaints against the government.
“Indeed, the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, only returned two official four wheel-drive vehicles that were in his possession for more than a year because he realised the security agencies were closing in on him,” he said.
He said while the government had had occasion to apologise to some personalities over the unfortunate seizure of their vehicles, those isolated cases could have been avoided, if officials of the Kufuor Administration had left the vehicles and other state properties intact.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said for those officials whose vehicles were more than two years but were undervalued, new values calculated by the official government valuer, who was allegedly sidelined by the intended buyers during the valuation stage, “is what will apply in all cases”.
He said the government had consulted the former appointees, including some former Ministers, through their association, the Association of Former Ministers, and that a lot of correspondence had been exchanged.
According to him, through such communication, Messrs Albert Kan Dapaah, Osei Asibey Antwi and Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, had returned their vehicles.
He said the government was not pursuing those who had licensed their vehicles already but those yet to do so.
He said the government was not unaware of the expectations of Ghanaians on it and would remain focused on its core responsibility of improving their lot so that in 2012, Ghanaians would be the best judge.
“We know what our mandate is and we’ll not at all be detracted by anybody or group to forget about our promises to the people of Ghana. Irrespective of what some people say, the truth is that after careful evaluation and assembling of all the facts, it has been found that the state of the Ghanaian economy is not one to be proud of,” he added.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said the government had not focused on debating and commenting on what he described as the lies of the NPP because it recognised that it had a more important task of halting the deterioration of the economy.
According to him, the prudent management of the economy by Prof Atta Mills had led to a slowdown in the rate of increase of inflation and the narrowing of the budget deficit of 0.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter of the year as compared to the 1.7 per cent recorded for the first quarter of 2008.
On alleged breaches of the Constitution and promotion of ethnicity, Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said it was strange on the part of the NPP to venture into such terrain and gave the assurance that the Atta Mills’s administration would neither promote nor encourage tribalism as it was evident in the composition of persons from all regions of Ghana in his government.
He said the Atta Mills administration had refrained from referring Ghanaians to the excesses of the Kufuor administration, including deliberate acts to denigrate the NDC by arresting its officials in church and preventing officials from travelling outside the country.
He said the NPP and its officials, fearing that any attempt by the government to investigate them would spell doom for a number of their leading members, had resorted to deliberate screaming through the media, thinking that would stop any such enquiries.
He said the government also found it unfortunate that Dr Kwesi Aning, a security expert, in furtherance of his political bias and attempt to embarrass the Atta Mills administration, should make claims of wanting to seek asylum.
“Quite clearly, the reasons for which he will be seeking the said asylum do not only sound funny, petty and ridiculous but can only be the imagination of a man desirous of finding fault where there’s none. And the platform on which he chose to make the claim and its linkage cannot be lost on us,” he said.
He said the government did not have any intention of pushing him to exile and advised him to report the persons allegedly threatening him to the police.