GBA President Yaw Acheampong Boafo
Story by: Adovor Nutifafa
Yaw Acheampong Boafo, the National President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has called on the Government and Parliament to prioritize the passage of the Conduct Of Public Officers Bill.
In this regard, He noted that “the GBA looks forward to the swift passage of the Conduct of Public Officers Bill, which we believe will ensure and instill a culture of accountability and integrity amongst public officers.
We call on the Government and Parliament to prioritize this and work closely together in making it a reality. Enough of the lip service.”
Speaking at a news conference in Accra on matters arising from the annual general GBA conference held from 10 to 15 September 2023 at Cape Coast, he criticized President Akufo-Addo’s handling of several reported corruption-related incidents involving some of the appointees and some public officers under the New Patriotic Party ( NPP) administration.
According to him, ” it is largely lethargic and leaves much to be desired.”
The criticism of the President of Ghana by GBA comes on the back of what he said in December 2016 following his election as the 5th President of the 4th Republic.
He explained “If your goal in coming to government is to enrich yourself, then don’t come. Go to the private sector. Public service is going to be exactly that; public service.”
Acheampong Boafo said “It must be stressed that as President, the painful truth is that the bucks stop with him. It is enough to say that it will be a sad period for our democratic governance if such a public undertaking that gave millions of Ghanaians hope ends up as a usual campaign rhetoric by a politician.
The jury is still out on this one and we hold the President to his undertaking.”
Acheampong Boafo indicated that while his outfit acknowledged reasonable efforts in the fight against corruption in recent years it was the view of the GBA that there is room for improvement noting that things could have been better.
The GBA President said, “We must all condemn this phenomenon where appointing authorities decide not to appoint men and women of real competence and proven integrity to public and political office, and instead make such appointments on grounds of personal preference or partisan or sectional interests or considerations of patronage or even by how much financial resources an appointee contributed to the electoral victory.”
He said the country must have a system where laws and sanctions for breaches are consistently and fairly enforced and where people in public offices who embezzle resources are dealt with according to law.
The Writer’s email: dovor100@gmail.com
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
