President John Mahama has accused his opposite number in the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of running away from a one-on-one debate.
According to Mr Mahama, despite a litany of accusations and allegations of corruption levelled against him and his government by Nana Akufo-Addo, the flag bearer of the NPP has failed to make himself available to a two-man debate over those same issues.
“I have challenged him (Akufo-Addo) to a debate, I have said bring all these points you are raising one by one and let us have a debate. Let me and you debate to the Ghanaian public about the points you are raising; inflation, infrastructure and things. But he has run away,” Mr Mahama told Ovation International in an exclusive interview.
Below is the transcript in connection with his response to the opposition NPP’s corruption allegations:
Ovation: Another topical issue is corruption. They say President Mahama and his government officials have stolen all their money. How would you react to this allegation
Mahama: It is absolutely untrue (President Mahama leans forward in his seat). I have responded to them (the opposition and all those making the allegation). I have said that some people have become political Quantity Surveyors. You can make an assessment of a project, only if you know the scope of work of that project.
Their own flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo said Kasoa Interchange was overpriced. A Member of Parliament from his own party came out and said he does not know what he is talking about because he did not know the scope of the project.
His thinking of Kasoa Interchange is that it is just a bridge. Kasoa Interchange is made up of three bridges. There is a main interchange and then two bridges to enable the people of East Kasoa and West Kasoa cross to the other halves of the city.
So if you hear an interchange and you just look at the price without being a quantity Surveyor, you are not an Engineer, you are just a Lawyer, you come out and say that it is overpriced, on what basis are you making your judgement?
The Kasoa Interchange includes 20 kilometres of inner city roads within Kasoa Town. We felt don’t just build an interchange; let it also have an impact on the people. Therefore, we are building 20 kilomteres of Asphalt roads within the Ga South District. We are building a brand new polyclinic with a complete Accident and Trauma Centre, so when people have accidents on the road, the nearest hospitals are Korle Bu in Accra and Winneba.
By the time you rush anyone there, some of them would have died, so we said it would be useful to have that polyclinic. It also includes three Millennium Schools while 20 communities in Ga South District are getting clean drinking water as part of the interchange. And so, without looking at the scope, you say the project is overpriced?
This kind of propaganda has become the sing song of the opposition because they cannot fault the massive social infrastructural interventions we are making, they cannot fault the amount of work that is going on all over the country, they have nothing to say but spill lies.
I am sure that real Ghanaians who are benefitting from these our interventions know the truth and cannot be deceived by empty words or comments that have no facts.
It has become a political strategy of the opposition to counter everything being done by alleging that everything is inflated.
Most of these works are being done by tender. And I have given a directive that where a tender is not held or it is not possible to hold the tender, there should be value for money audit conducted. These projects are subjected to value for money audit.
There are some projects that you necessarily must sole source because the money came from a certain country and they expect that contractor who sourced the funds would have to execute the job. And to ensure the people are not short changed we insist that we do value for money. Crown Agents is the one that does the Value for Money audit.
The Ridge Hospital is one of those projects that he (Akufo-Addo) openly said was overpriced.
The Ridge Hospital is one of those projects that went for value for money, and the value for money saved us $40 million. The Crown Agents said that we can apply the $40 million on additional expansion work on the Ridge Hospital, and so the scope of the hospital was expanded because of the value for money that was undertaken, and yet you point at the $40 million and say it was an inflated contract. You see my point?
And he said they built roads at $300 million. I don’t know where he got that figure from and that we are building roads at more than $1 million per kilometre. Every road has its own scope and that is why you do the design.
There will be marshy areas where you have to scoop out all the clay and marsh and dump some rocks there. And so if you are doing a kilometre of road over land like that, it will be far more expensive than a kilometre of road over rocks, so no two roads are comparable.
Roads have different specifications, you can ask them to use asphalt of a certain thickness because you do not have articulated trucks running on that road. There are other roads you ask for higher thickness because the load on the road is heavier.
If you are working on this road in front of my house, the asphalt thickness would be like this (demonstrates) very thin, because no heavy truck comes down this road, but if I am doing a highway, then I need to raise the asphalt to a very high thickness. So if you say, comparatively, roads were cheaper in this time than that time, what is the basis for such comparison?
Every road depends on design and conditions over which the road is crossing. Is it an existing road? That means it has a base already, or is it a virgin road, in which case you are cutting a new road, carving it out, which will entail clearing the forest and cutting the road through. So it is difficult to understand his statement.
I have challenged him (Akufo-Addo) to a debate, I have said bring all these points you are raising one by one and let us have a debate. Let me and you debate to the Ghanaian public about the points you are raising; inflation, infrastructure and things. But he has run away.
Ovation: (Cuts in) But the story is that you are the one running from a debate
How can I run from a debate? I want a productive debate, one-on-one with Nana Akufo-Addo. What they are talking about is the IEA. I want a debate on all the contentious issues he has raised. And I will respond and Ghanaians will be the judge.
Source: Classfmonline
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THE OVERALL BEST CHIEF PROPAGANDIST AND LIAR AS WELL. MASTER WHO RUN FIRST NO BE YOU LIAR LIAR LIAR SHAME SHAME SHAMEEEEEEEEEEEEE RUN AWAY PAPA PRESIDENT JDM HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The most corrupt and ***barred word*** president we have ever had, especially coming into the presidency through the back door.Its pathetic, babies with sharp teeth minsters, kickbacks, judgement debts, mahama and his conies buy properties all over the place in dubai in people's name to cover their scandalous corrupt activities.....VOTE MAHAMA OUT DEC 2016. PERIOD ENOUGH OF THE CORRUPTION
Debate for what? Because you Mahama yourself is corrupt, you don't see the several corruptions going on your government. He go ask Ativor and co.
What a pathetic leader. This is cheap talk. Will the debate solve bread and butter issues?? Ghanaians are wise now. They are feeling the hardship meted out to them. No one is exempted from these untowed hardship.Mr Prez., be sincere to yourself. Can't you see what is happening?? I heard you say,''what is money when there are no hospitals to go to''??? But Presido, what is hospital when there is no money to pay for treatment? Leave these cheap talks to your communicators at least they can be forgiven.
For your information the IEA Debate is not a genuine one, even Nana Ado who agreed to hold the debate has run away from it. Tell Nana to stop running away, Mahama need him for one on one debate. Real debate that they can ask each other questions directly, this is what Mahama is asking for. Stop hiding behind the so called IEA.
Runaway man Nana Ado. Nana Ado is really an artful dodger.
I think this president is insane. You were invited for a iea debate and you failed to partake with the excuse that your party will make that decision. Npp indicated their willingness to partake in it. Now that you've realized you are loosing the fight you now clutching to the straw. You bastardized the iea for reasons best known to you and your irks and now you say what? Abodam