{"id":381629,"date":"2017-12-10T07:33:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T07:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=381629"},"modified":"2017-12-10T10:12:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T10:12:29","slug":"nana-addo-wrong-to-endorse-suspicious-jospong-casely-hayford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/nana-addo-wrong-to-endorse-suspicious-jospong-casely-hayford\/","title":{"rendered":"Nana Addo wrong to endorse ‘suspicious’ Jospong – Casely Hayford"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s praise of the founder of the Jospong Group of Companies, Joseph Siaw Agyepong in November, was completely wrong, according to anti-corruption campaigner, Sydney Casely Hayford.<\/p>\n
The issue was brought under the spotlight on The Big Issue<\/strong> after the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo’s\u00a0assertion during the week that the President must not be seen to be condoning acts of corruption, which Jospong has been accused of.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”9OuA4QIEM5rm88R99SKfPd3MVZs57t8A”]Mindful of the fact Jospong has not been indicted for any acts of corruption, Mr. Casely-Hayford said the mere fact a shadow hangs over the operations of Jospong should have compelled the President to keep his distance from the company.<\/p>\n “…So when my President gets up and goes to a facility of someone who is suspected of not having done business in a proper manner and you go and stand in his facility, the fact that you are there gives it an endorsement. You are endorsing the man\u2019s operations. That for me is a complete no no. You don\u2019t do things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, Ghana is “too fond of trying to cover up and trying to give the coverups that we do [different names] and the stark reality is that people are involved in stealing monies and we like to give it different labels in order to make it look like something more than that. We call it corruption instead of calling it stealing, which is what it is.”<\/p>\n Zoomlion and GYEEDA scandal<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of Jospong\u2019s dealings with the government have been subject to suspicion following the revelation of scandals involving companies under its umbrella.<\/p>\n Of personal concern to Mr. Casely-Hayford is the handling of the malfeasance at the erstwhile Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA).<\/p>\n Some companies, including Jospong\u2019s Zoomlion Ghana, were engaged to render services to the country under the social intervention programme which has undergone a number of transformations over the years, and is now called the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) .<\/p>\n The YEA recently directed Zoomlion to furnish it with\u00a0a database of some 45,000 beneficiaries\u00a0under\u00a0the agency\u2019s sanitation module amid concerns over ghost names.<\/p>\n