The Editor of the Business Finder newspaper, Toma Amihere has insisted that government should have established a legal agreement with Engineers and Planners, the company dredging the Odaw river for free, before releasing the earth moving equipment to them.
This, he said, is because the equipment belong to the state and must be protected.
The brother of President John Mahama and Chief Executive of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama, was given some state equipment for the dredging.
According to Ibrahim Mahama, government only fuels the equipment he is using for the exercise.
He told Citi News that “the Ministry of Local Government gave the equipment to us and I am happy you are here to see the equipment working. It was released for us to help desilt the drain and that is the condition. They are being used for government work.”
However the Minority spokesperson on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu has insisted that Ibrahim Mahama should return the equipment because he is using it for his other projects.
“They were using it at the road construction site of the company at Tafo and Klagon,” he argued.
But speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, the Editor of the Business Finder newspaper, Toma Amihere said the Minority’s claims could have been adhered to if there had been a contract between government and Ibrahim Mahama.
“He has been given public assets without any contract and I don’t see how on earth that should be. Even if he is doing something for free, there should be a written contract between him and the government defining what he has being given, who has liability in case anything happens to that equipment and how the equipment should be used. Right now there is nothing on paper, what happens if one of his trucks due to careless driving crashes into a super market and 20 people get killed? So now these are things that need to be in black and white.”
“…if he decides to use part of the equipment for his own personal things, there is no legally binding agreement that while he is in possession of that government equipment, it must be used for that purpose he was using it for and that purpose alone,” he added.
Toma Imihere however noted that Ibrahim Mahama, despite being the brother of the President should not be denied certain benefits as a Ghanaian.
“I don’t believe the President’s brother should be penalized or excluded from being able to do certain things simply because he is the president’s brother. If he is found to be competent and is willing to do social service, why not, it shouldn’t be that because he is a President’s brother he should be denied from doing something for free,” he said.
–
By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana