General News of Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Source: Akomea, Nana

Missing Files Claim Another Attempt To Cover Up On Wayome Gate

During a radio discussion on the Woyome scandal last Saturday 25th February 2012, the Deputy Minister of Information, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa claimed the NDC government’s actions have been constrained by the unavailability of official documents. He blamed officials of the former government for taking away these documents.

This latest assertion by Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa is another twist in the great cover up that the government is attempting over the Woyome scandal.

Official correspondence in the Ministries/Department/Agencies (MDA’S) are always archived at their respective registries, and officials, including political office holders, cannot normally remove archived documents.

Furthermore, correspondence is normally from one MDA to another, so there are usually several copies of such documents.

At the transition team’s work in first quarter 2009, the team met with political office holders and Chief Directors and documents made available for the team’s work.

It is therefore strange that more than 3 years later, the nation is being told about some missing documents hampering governments work. This latest assertion is clearly another diversionary attempt in the big plot to cover up, as asserted by no less a person than Martin Amidu, then Minister for Justice and Attorney General.

There have been many attempts to pursue this cover up agenda in the Woyome scandal.

They include: the Auditor General being made to disown some part of his own final report to Parliament through an unsigned press release; and the EOCO amending part of its own interim report.

On concealment/withholding of documents, the gargantuan examples are in the NDC government over the Woyome scandal.

We have been told that

1. Documents were withheld from the Auditor General (over the “reversal” of the GHC 41.8m cheque to Mr. Woyome in April 2010. 2. Documents/correspondence were withheld from the President as explanation for why the President did not know about the payments.

The trite question here is if the government did not have the necessary documents, why did government go ahead to make these gargantuan payments to Mr. Woyome.? Indeed, the document cited by government as support for their payment to Mr. Woyome is a one page letter of Introduction written on the 4th May 2005 by Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu then Deputy Minister of Finance.

It is the same letter that is cited as government’s defense that Mr. Woyome had no contract with government to warrant the gargantuan payments. So government surely had the documents it needed. The attempts and twists to cover up on Woyome gate would not stand.

Hon. Nana Akomea Director of Communications