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General News of Friday, 11 December 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Sideline Osafo-Maafo in your next govt - Ghanaians to Akufo-Addo

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Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo

A day after the Electoral Commission of Ghana led by Jean Mensa made the official declaration of the presidential results, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appointed his Transition Team, in accordance with the Presidential (Transition) Act, 2012, Act (845).

Per the laws the incumbent president is allowed to appoint amongst others, the head of presidential staff, Attorney-General, Ministers of Presidential Affairs, Finance, Interior, Defence, Foreign Affairs.

However, some Ghanaians appeared unhappy when they sighted the name of the Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo as a member of the Transition Team.

According to them, some of his acts during Akufo-Addo’s first term as president contributed to the ruling government’s struggle to retain power.

Several Ghanaians who shared their thoughts on their various social media platforms alleged that the Senior Minister while in office perpetuated and supervised several acts of corruption with his son and remained untouched due to his relations with President Akufo-Addo.

They, however, demanded of the president to sideline Yaw Osafo-Maafo in his next administration. Other were keen on initiating a petition to force the NPP stalwart out of government.

Background

In 2017, the Senior Minister, on behalf of the government, signed a contract with Kroll and Associates for the firm to do value-for-money auditing on some projects, identify wrongdoers and recover the assets of the said wrongdoers. Kroll was reportedly paid $1 million.

However, following an audit of the accounts of the Ministry of Finance, the Auditor-General came to a conclusion that Kroll and Associates had been paid for no work done.

The Senior Minister therefore became the man in the middle of controversy after President Akufo-Addo directed the Auditor General to proceed on his accumulated leave.

The Auditor General at the time was leading an investigation against the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo in a controversial $1 million (€826,000) procurement of service.

The case later landed in court. While pending court judgement, the Auditor General was expected to take a critical look at the evidence of work done provided by the Senior Minister and his team.

However, the Acting Auditor general, a day after the Auditor General began his leave, gave an indication that the evidence of work done provided by the Senior Minister’s team was satisfactory.

The Court subsequently cleared Osafo-Maafo and his team in the $1m Kroll and Associates surcharge by the Auditor General.

Below are some reactions from Ghanaians culled from Twitter by GhanaWeb;