Head of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) Election 2016 Fact-finding Committee, Professor Kwesi Botchwey, has disclosed that the party’s heavy defeat in the last election was partly due to a “breakdown of integrity.”

Speaking for the first time after submitting the committee’s findings to the NDC leadership, Prof Botchwey said his committee observed that the breakdown of integrity was evident in the selection of people to various executive positions within the party hierarchy.

“Indeed, the loss of ethicality had a lot to do in the party’s defeat in 2016. In the work that I chaired, thanks to the decision of the national executive to involve me in that important exercise, we identified and the party is aware of the incidence of observation of grievances, bitterness, over what many saw as the manipulation and breakdown of integrity in the selection of executives in the various levels of management in the party’s affairs from the branch upwards.”

Prof Botchwey made the revelation when he spoke at the 6th John Evans Atta Mills Commemorative Lecture at the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region yesterday.

The lecture was on the theme: “Ethicality, Democracy and National Development: The Legacy of President Atta Mills.”

He also used the opportunity to talk about the ideals of Prof Mills of blessed memory.

He also spoke about the personal ethical character of late President Mills that helped him deal with whistle-blowing in the fight against corruption and political misbehaviour.

The NDC tasked the Kwesi Botchwey committee to investigate the party’s humiliating defeat in the 2016 general elections.

The committee after several months of its find finding mission submitted its report to the party.

However, the NDC leadership has been tight-lipped on the content of the report saying it wasn’t meant for public consumption.