The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has called on government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the printing of 3,000 pieces of error-ridden brochures for distribution at Ghana’s 59th Independence Day parade, at the Black Star Square last Sunday.
“The NPP calls for full scale investigations into this fiasco in order to unearth the deficiencies in the working mechanisms of these public bodies that have resulted in this Independence Day brochure fiasco, so as to properly locate where the blame should be, and to prevent future occurrence and embarrassment,” a statement signed by the NPP’s Communications Director, Nana Akomea added.
Ghana has been ridiculed both locally and internationally for capturing the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta [who was the guest of honour at the parade] as the president of Ghana.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LNol3rY6tnb5VSdsATWt1UClXnaKA0qD”]The brochure also had other grammatical and typographical errors which critics say had tarnished the image of the country.
Following the uproar that greeted the incident, the acting Director of the Information Service Department, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, was subsequently removed from office after he accepted full responsibility for the errors.
Nana Akomea says the NPP is of the view that a proper investigation into the incident, will unearth the entire truth.
The statement further asked six questions which the NPP thinks could help government during the investigations.
Below are the questions:
a) How was the acting director of the ISD appointed when he was not qualified by the requirements of the Ghana Civil Service for that position?
b) The charge by the staff of the ISD that their work has been usurped by the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House
c) The propriety of statements issued and signed by the minister of communications, announcing the contents of “a statement signed by the Chief of Staff”, when that “statement signed by the Chief of Staff” is not in the public domain?
d) Which public official actually signed off on the final draft of the brochure before it went for printing?
If it was the dismissed acting director of the ISD, did he have authority to do that?
e) Which printer was selected and proceeded to print such a document with such obvious errors?
f) How true is the report that the chairman of the Independence Day planning committee has laid the blame on the communications directorate of the Flagstaff House and not on the committee or the ISD, and that may have led to the minister of communications assuming responsibility for the directorate etc?
The NPP believes such an official investigation to bring closure to these questions will be in line with good governance principles and also will also ensure that this phenomenal national embarrassment does not recur.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana