A chartered accountant, Cudjoe Akpabey, says political interference in the work of state institutions is to be blamed for corruption in the country, which he has described as endemic.
Mr Akpabey, who works with Akpabey and Akpabey Accounting and Auditing Firm, said corruption can only be dealt with if technocrats are allowed the room to work without interference from politicians.
“Virtually all state institutions are being manipulated by politicians. And the professionals and technocrats have nothing to do. Unfortunately in this part of the world, we don’t have the culture of resigning because someone is interfering with your work that’s the bottom line,” he said on 3FM Tuesday.
He said considering the level of political interference, it was not surprising that the Bank of Ghana awarded a contract to a private company to act as the switch for across-network mobile money at the cost of 14 billion dollars whereas there were other bidders with 5 million and 14 million dollars.
Mr Akpabey cited several instances of mismanagement, insisting that until established institutions did their work without political interference, Ghana would not achieve any meaningful impact in the fight against corruption.
“This is small compared to other worse cases. I’m saying that if you look at what has been happening in this country, this is negligible. I’m saying I’ve done some work for the state and it’s all been politicized and until we deal with that, we’re going nowhere.
“What is going on is worrying; look at what has been going on like the manipulation of the Ghana Custom system, where we lost billions and the server was manipulated by the IT guy who ran away,” he claimed.
Mr Akpabey added: “We’re talking about re-location of service lines, all the major road contracts; telco masts, all these are budgeted for, yet they cannot be accounted for.
“You’re talking about the telco’s where nobody is monitoring international and local calls but we’re paying Subah Info Solutions and Afriwave Telecom Ghana when there is no company in the country with the capacity to do that.
“Let Ghanaians listen, let’s de-politicize the State Institutions and allow the professional and Technical people to work otherwise we’re going nowhere,” he said.
The issue of corruption has generated headlines in the country following the bribery scandal that rocked the Appointments Committee of Parliament, the disclosure on the construction of vice president’s villa at an alleged cost of 13 billion dollars
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