Goosie denies misappropriating loan

The flagbearer of the National Reform Party (NRP), Mr Goosie Tanoh, has vehemently denied that he has squandered a multimillion-cedi loan granted to his firm, Transport and Commodity Company (T & CC), which exports cassava chips.

He said his company, now valued at about six million dollars, has earned the country close to 10 million dollars in foreign exchange, created jobs for about a 1,000 workers and provided guaranteed market for thousands of farmers since it was formed about six years ago.

"It is therefore not true that I have mismanaged the loan and collapsed the company as being alleged by the National Democratic Congress (NDC)." Tanoh was answering a question put to him by a caller when he was hosted on the Sunyani-based Radio BAR FM station on Sunday.

The caller wanted to know the veracity of the allegation of misappropriation of the loan levelled against him by the NDC during its recent regional rally held at Sunyani. Tanoh also denied that he used his influence then as a member of the government to secure the loan, and insisted that he got it on merit and did not see any crime in this since every genuine businessman is entitled to a loan in the country.

The NRP flagbearer said it is mischievous for the NDC to level the allegations against him since it knows very well that the loan was being used judiciously for the purpose for which it was granted.

"Even the government has 676,000 shares in the company following its consent to convert the loans into shares for which we have made a commitment to buy back by 2003."

Tanoh pledged that an NRP government would give practical support and assistance to businessmen, irrespective of their political affiliations, as part of its wealth-creation agenda.

"A Reform government is going to be a government for people and business where every assistance, including training and credit support, will be given to every deserving person or corporate body to help create jobs and wealth."

Tanoh described as a sign of desperation the NDC's spirited campaign to discredit him and predicted that whether the government likes it or not, Ghanaians are going to vote it out because it has woefully failed.

He hinted that his party might also collate its own results of the December election to ensure that "no party manipulates the bloated voters register to its advantage".

Earlier at a people's summit held at Sunyani to learn about the developmental aspirations of the people in the region, a disabled person, Mr Raphael Botchwey, expressed his disappointment about the failure of the parties to address the needs of the disabled.

Botchwey explained that a lot of Ghanaians are disabled in one way or another due to poverty and poor health care and it is therefore prudent that the parties adopt specific programmes to address their needs.

"We form a sizeable part of the population and it is only fair that you outline specific provisions to address our needs to forestall the situation where some of us are forced to beg for a living."

Answering him, Tanoh said a Reform government would solve the problems of disability through better health care, skill training and credit support to the disabled