The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it is more than convinced that the relationship between Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanzoe and President John Mahama, coupled with the gift of the Ford Expedition vehicle to the president, influenced the sudden winning of contracts in Ghana by the Burkinabe.
It follows media expose that the president received a brand new 2010 model Ford Expedition gift from Djibril Kanazoe, who was struggling to win contracts in Ghana and finally started executing a number of them after meeting the president.
He later sent a gift worth $100,000 to President Mahama through the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has asked President Mahama to return the controversial gift because according to the anti-graft body, the president’s action “breaches the state’s anti-corruption code.”
Even though government has denied any wrongdoing on the part of the president, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), like many others, believe that Djibril Kanazoe’s friendship with the president earned him some of the juicy contracts, chief among them were the construction of a fence wall at the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou at a cost of $650,000 and the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road worth €25.9 million.
Kanazoe has since chickened out of a third contract – 28-kilometre road project between Wa and Hamile in the Upper West Region at an estimated cost of GH¢82 million after the scandal broke.
Indictment
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, acting National Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay, said of President Mahama, “The giver, your friend, has confessed that he has given his friend in government who has since helped him to secure government contracts a gift of a sports utility vehicle.”
According to the NPP chieftain, “On a matter as this, the president must come out personally to answer the allegations, not delegate it to his underlings, as if to imply that this is some petty or unimportant matter.”
He acknowledged the several opinions expressed on the matter by the anti-corruption community [Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), former CHRAJ Commissioner, Emile Short and the president’s own Advisor, Daniel Batidam on Integrity] that the president’s conduct violates even his own Code of Conduct, quoting Article 284 of the Constitution to back its position that the president was complicit in the affair.
Doubts
“How does the president reconcile this with accepting a gift of substantial value from a businessman and friend who has a material interest in public works contracts awarded by the Government of Ghana?”, he asked rhetorically, adding, “The president’s primary duty is to put the interest of Ghana above all else in all of his dealings and to not allow even an appearance to emerge that he has compromised that paramount duty in favour of a third party who is involved in certain transactions with the Government of Ghana.”
Mr Blay said, “We cannot simply disregard the seemingly coincidental timing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructing the Bank of Ghana to make payment for the Ouagadougou wall and the procurement and transportation of the Ford SUV vehicle to the president as its beneficiary owner.”
Again, he insisted that “The notion that the so-called gift was passed on to the state is a pitiful defence and clearly an afterthought. The presidential fleet is not stocked through donations from private foreign contractors doing business with the government.”
That, he said, was due to the fact that “We would be risking the personal security of our presidents and the staff of the presidency if such were the practice.”
Concerns
In view of this, the NPP acting Chairman stated, “The stance of the Mahama administration in refusing to acknowledge wrongdoing and show contrition in this matter is an example of the arrogant display and abuse of power that has become characteristic of this government. The president must show leadership and humility by admitting wrongdoing and not hide behind government communicators to further insult the intelligence of Ghanaians and all who are rightfully disappointed by this gratuitous damage to the dignity of his office and the country.”
He wondered, “How does he explain the reversal of the GH¢82 ($20.78m) potentially unlawful road contract that was all but concluded with Mr Kanazoe to construct a 28km road (at the cost of GH¢82 million)? Why reverse it if it was proper?”
It is for this reason the NPP wants the issue about the cost of constructing the Ghana Embassy wall in Ouagadougou, to be probed alongside issues surrounding the Ford Expedition and all other contracts awarded to Mr Kanazoe since in Blay’s own words “symptomatic of the stench of corruption and incompetence that have overwhelmed the Mahama administration; the president has in this case displayed extraordinary poor judgment and indiscretion unbecoming of the elevated office he occupies.”
Apart from that, he noted, “President Mahama has clearly caused his subordinates, ranging from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Roads, former ambassador to Burkina Faso, to all those who facilitated the delivery of the car to him, to become possible accessories to an alleged crime themselves, further reinforcing the culture of corruption.”
Probe
The NPP has therefore called for a parliamentary probe into the scandal; for the House to exercise its vested investigatory power or to act, pursuant to Article 2789(c), to cause a bi-partisan public enquiry to be appointed to probe into the affair because “The president of the Republic stands accused of bribery, abuse of office and conflict of interest.”
That, it said was because “The circumstantial evidence linking the president to the contractor, and the contracts to the gift, and clear efforts not to be transparent with the transaction, provide enough grounds for Ghanaians to get a full public enquiry into this matter.”
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