The Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, has said contrary to suggestions by critics that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has mismanaged the economy, the government has performed creditably well in its first year in office.
Highlighting what he described as the “high points” under the NPP administration, Mr. Hamid listed some projects government had undertaken in a bid to improve the living standards of Ghanaians.
[contextly_sidebar id=”9yCMZRcOAt62LpTKdQNNplCjb1LylkJg”]Key among these projects, according to him, are the introduction of Free Senior High School (SHS) policy and the ongoing campaign against galamsey.
“As far as I am concerned, in the one year that we have had the mandate of our people, we have executed projects to the best of our abilities and I believe that per the mandate that the Ghanaian people gave us and the manifesto that we put before the Ghanaian people, I believe we have done so well to execute our mandate and our manifesto commitment.”
“Number one, you will single out the rolling out of the SHS as one of the initiatives that ultimately will develop our human resource as a country. The President made a commitment that he was not going to allow water bodies to deteriorate in such a way that in the next two years we are going to import water and so he was going to fight the galamsey menace. Right now, the Ghana Water Company is able to process water from many of the water sources which hitherto they could not process because they had been severely polluted. The President has signed into law the three development authority bills which are going to be the vehicles for transformation,”Mr. Hamid indicated.
‘Response to corruption apt’
Despite scoring the government a favourable 80% in its first year, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), in its assessment of the NPP administration, had described as unsatisfactory, efforts aimed at addressing corruption. But Mr. Hamid disagreed with this assertion, saying government’s fight against corruption within the period had been effective .
“Opinions differ and as a country we will always disagree with what is best and what is not best but as far as we are concerned, the way we responded to these matters were apt.”
On the demands by the ICU for the President to fast-track the process of getting the Special Prosecutor’s Office running to clamp down on corruption in the country, Mr. Hamid said the government had already begun processes to prosecute corrupt officials, even without the yet-to-be-created office.
“The President and all of us have explained that we were investigating acts of corruption. Today [Tuesday], the NCA matter will make its first appearance in court and so it is not as if we were waiting for the Special Prosecutor at all,” Mr. Hamid argued.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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