Kweku Baako Backs Mahama's Demand For Public Disclosure Of Cocoa Roads Audit Report
Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says former President John Mahama's demand for public disclosure on an audit report on cocoa roads is in the right direction.
"When such reports are published it promotes transparency and accountability and probity," he pointed out while contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo'.
The flagbearer of the NDC has asked for an audit report conducted by the NPP government on the cocoa road projects he (Mahama) awarded to contractors to be made public.
“They abandoned the projects because of sabotage and politics. Because they realized we are close to elections, they have started work on the roads again. I want to know where the audit report is. I am here at Bopa asking the NPP government to publish the audit reports on cocoa roads for everyone to see.”
“The laws of Ghana indicate that if a government starts a project and loses the elections, it is incumbent on the next government to continue with the projects. But this is not what we are seeing. When the NDC was voted out of power, there were a lot of contractors working on projects, but when this government took over, they halted all of them, saying it was auditing them. It has been four years now and I believe that even if it was the Bible we were reading, we would have covered from Genesis to Revelations by now,” he stated at a durbar of chiefs of Bopa in the Sefwi Akontombra Distict in the Western North Region.
Sharing his thoughts on this, Kweku Baako said: "I have to be honest with you; I also don’t understand why (the report is not being made public) . . . no matter the reasons that have been given; I don’t agree. When such reports are published it promotes transparency and accountability and probity. There might be very good reasons but . . . "
The seasoned journalist held that being secretive with the report "doesn’t help anybody’s cause especially COCOBOD if this report remains classified secret confidential and unpublished; it doesn’t. And so, I make an appeal that the decision should be revised and the report made public or at least to Parliament."
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