Minority Leader to resign if, ..

Mr Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader of Parliament, has said that he would resign his position if all current Ministers and District Chief Executives (DCEs) passed the test on 'Zero Tolerance for Corruption' on their stewardship over the past 18 months in government.

He challenged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to institute an independent forensic audit into the administration of all such officials to determine whether they were without blemish.

Mr Bagbin said these at the handing over and swearing in ceremony of executives of the Tertiary Education Institutional Network of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) branch of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) in Accra.

He was reacting to a front-page story of Thursday, October 3, edition of the Ghanaian Times, a state-owned daily which reported that Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey (rtd), Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said 28 former DCEs have been cited for prosecution for financial malfeasance during their tenure of office.

Mr Bagbin said if only 25 per cent of the numerous DCEs who served the nation since the inception of the local government concept had been cited for financial malpractices after a politically motivated forensic audit, "then the NDC need to be commended for standing tall on the probity and accountability yard stick."

He said the party had never opposed the auditing of former ministers, DCEs or NDC activists but it would fight against the use of 'so called forensic auditing' as a political tool to intimidate, frustrate and cripple NDC members, who have faithfully served the country.

"We stand against politics of defaming political opponents and giving the dog a bad name to hang it, as it would be a very bad precedence for our evolving democracy." On the contribution of the minority to the socio-economic and political development of the country, Mr Bagbin said the 1992 Constitution imposed oversight responsibility of government on the opposition.

"We have been there for the past eight years and we know the terrain and have been offering constructive criticism, suggestions and inputs on national issues but the onus lies with the government to openly accept them."

He said Former President Jerry John Rawlings advised former ministers to share their experiences with the new administration. The Minority Leader, however, expressed disappointment that the government had not learnt lessons from mistakes of the NDC government and continued to repeat or commit elementary administrative errors.

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr Joshua Alabi called for civility and circumspection if the party's campaign for a flagbearership commenced.

He said: "We need to come out of the last December Special Delegates' Congress united to enable us to wrestle power from the NPP." Other party functionaries who spoke on varied topics included: the National Youth Organiser, Iddrisu Haruna, "the role of the youth in politics, the challenges and prospects," Minority Chief Whip, Mr Doe Adjaho, "the practice of democracy and the rule of law under the current government" and Mr Kosi Kedem, "the Ghana Education Trust Fund, the challenges and prospects."