President of policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has stated that the errors in Ghana’s 59th Independence brochure were deliberately done to embarrass President John Mahama.
Ghana’s 59th Independence Day celebration has been ridiculed after it was discovered that the over 3,000 copies of the brochure printed for the historic event, contained grammatical, spelling and factual errors.
The error that stood out was the fact that Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, who was the guest of honour, was rather captured as the President of Ghana.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Ung6I5WEM0TqwjsHxGuW0Vg9bIwvlNUD”]The acting Director of Information Services Department, who took responsibility for the errors, has been dismissed after public outcry spearheaded by workers of the department.
But speaking on Citi FM’s current affairs and news analysis programme ‘The Big Issue, Mr. Cudjoe questioned why some portions of the brochure were written without mistakes, while some parts were full of grammatical and factual errors.
He is of the view that the processes used to award the contract of printing the brochure to some individuals brought about a sabotage.
“I don’t see how any normal person who has gone through some form of secondary school education would have put together these words… you could tell that other parts of the brochure were written quite well, so for me it’s either a combination of witchcraft, vodoo or sabotage”, he said.
He explained that the procurement process left some people at the presidency out of the contract; hence a careless attitude in cross-checking the brochure before it came out.
“This sabotage is induced, reason why oversight was thrown to the dogs because it was being done in a hurry and somebody wanted to make sure that his or her cut is there”, he added.
Explain the award of contract
Also speaking on the programme, Sydney Casely-Hayford, a Financial Analyst and social commentator, said government must explain how the contract for the printing was awarded.
Mr. Casely-hayford, also a member of the pressure group Occupy Ghana, has started a process to demand answers from government on the printing of the brochure.
He further requested a full disclosure on how much it cost the state to print the error-ridden brochures for the sake of accountability and transparency.
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By Lawrence Segbefia /citifmonline.com/Ghana