Franklin Cudjoe, the Founding President of policy think-tank, Imani-Africa, has warned Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and the current top executives of the National Communications Authority (NCA) that they may be next to be jailed for reportedly causing financial loss to the State in the Kelni GvG scandal.
On Tuesday three former appointees of the NCA under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) were jailed a total of 16 years for wilfully causing financial loss to the state from an amount of $4 million they pocketed when they ordered some spy gadget while at the helm of affairs at the NCA.
The three: A former board NCA Chairman, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie (6 years); William Tetteh Tevie (5 years in jail), a former Director-General of the NCA (5-year jail term) and Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman (5 years in prison), a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, where all found culpable to have pocketed at least US$ 200,000 in that deal which appeared to have been cooked specifically to lace their pockets.
“Just heard: NCA Trial: High Court Convicts 3 Accused Persons, Sentences them to a Total of 16 Years in Prison.
ME: The way to go. Next would be KelniGVG but not until power changes hands even after 2024,” Mr Cudjoe noted in a post on his social media wall.
According to his, the jailing of the NDC appointees has set the tone for jailing NPP appointees in a similar deal if the party gets kicked out of power in future.
In the Kelni GvG deal spearheaded by Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, it is a 10-year contract worth $178 million with Haitian IT firm, Kelni-GVG to help Ghana monitor revenues going to telecom operators in the country.
Incidentally, the contract was reportedly not run through proper procurement processes, despite its huge value.
Franklin Cudjoe and his organisation have repeatedly criticised the contract as needless and a conduit to siphon state funds into private pockets.
But the Ministry led by Ursula Owusu has been defending the contract arguing that it is a worthwhile contract with immense benefit to the country in terms of accruing revenue to the government.
Meanwhile, Renowned Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has advised appointees under the Akufo-Addo government who have been implicated in corrupt practices to turn themselves in and face persecution now because they risk being handed severe punishments and prison sentences under another political regime.
“If one’s own (that’s the appointees) examination establishes culpability of corruption, one may have to turn himself or herself to the appropriate agencies to be dealt with now. Failure to do so may be more catastrophic in future regime…“The law on causing financial loss to the state, though passed by the regime of the National Democratic Congress, has been used against NDC appointees more,” professor Gyampo noted.