Corruption: Mahama an Angel compared to Kufuor - Agalga

Deputy Interior Minister James Agalga has told Radio XYZ’s news analysis programme, ‘The Analyst’, that former President John Agyekum Kufuor, unlike President John Mahama, condoned corruption at the heart of his government.

Defending the President’s manner of handling the rot within the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Agalga said Mahama is the only President to have shown commitment to fighting corruption in his administration.

“…If for nothing at all let me say that for once a President has demonstrated his commitment to fighting corruption”, Agalga said.

In a veiled swipe at Kufuor’s handling of corruption allegations and rumours within his Government, Agalga said: “…Gone are the days when others said that corruption started from the days of Adam and Eve and did nothing about rumours that were making the rounds that there was corruption within official circles in this country”.

Kufuor, who promised “zero tolerance for corruption” ahead of his election in 2000, later said, during the dying embers of his first term, that corruption had always existed in the history of humankind and every society, dating as far back as in the days of the biblical Adam and Eve.

He was harshly criticised for that statement, which was seen by his opponents as a resignation to fate to not just maintain the status quo but also condone and benefit from it.

Agalga said unlike Kufuor who turned a blind eye to corruption in his Government, “we have not done that; we have decided to go look for the evidence and prosecute and I’m saying that the procedures adopted – EOCO, the CID – they have started collating evidence based upon which they can prosecute”.

The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service, are both doing their separate investigations into what has come to be known as the GYEEDA rot saga.

Tens of millions of cedis is alleged to have been fraudulently siphoned into private pockets through various modules of the programme which was meant to address the youth unemployment situation.

The diverted funds allegedly siphoned via what has been described by some critics as “non-existent” conduits such as afforestation and guinea fowl projects.