Kufuor Lies About NPP’s Ghana Railways

Since he is no longer in the hot seat as President of Ghana, many Ghanaians had nursed the hope that Ex-President Kufuor will no longer find the need to lie as he used to do flawlessly when he was President. However, at Sekondi last week, the ex-President showed that he does not intend to stop lying and behave like a statesman.

This sad character trait was brought to the fore yesterday by the Honourable Deputy Minister for Transport, Dzifa Ativor, when she revealed that the ex-President, speaking to NPP supporters in Sekondi, lied when he said his government had secured funding for the resuscitation of the railway sub-sector and would have done so had they not lost political power.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday at her Ministry, Dzifa Ativor revealed that Kufuor was economical with the truth on the issue because not a cedi was left in the coffers for the railway sector when the NDC came to power.

She said documents the NDC government laid hands on showed that the then NPP government earmarked $90million out of a $750million loan it had contracted to rehabilitate the sub-sector but that money was squandered without even an inch of railway line being built.

She recalled the mess the Kufuor government left Ghana railways in before leaving office. Salaries of workers were not only in arrears but were woefully inadequate per the acceptable minimum wage prescribed by the labor laws of the land.

Furthermore, 670 workers of the Ghana Railways company had only 50% of their severance package paid to them.

In clearing up the mess, Dzifa Attivor revealed that the NDC government raised the salaries of workers of the Ghana Railway Company which was 23% below minimum wage by 45% while the remaining 50% of the severance package was paid to the 670 workers in 2009.

Other achievements of the government in the Railway sub-sector in less than 4 years include the completion of the railway from Asaprochona near Sakumono to Tema and the acquisition of 40 wagons for the transportation of heavy minerals among others.

She said the NDC government will make judicious use out of the US$500million from the $3billion Chinese loan to build the first phase of the Western rail line from Takoradi to Kumasi.