The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has said political parties and their Presidential Candidates who have failed to declare their commitment to three key constitutional reforms, necessary to pave way for incorruptible leadership, efficient and effective administration of the country, are mere propagandists that must be rejected by the electorate in the December 2012 elections.
The PPP’s commitment to the reforms, it describes as fundamental, for the transformational development of the country, were reiterated by William Dowokpor, the party’s Parliamentary Candidate for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, on Sunday. According to him,* *the* *party’s* *commitment to sponsor an amendment of the 1992 constitution*, *to separate the Office of Attorney-General from the Ministry of Justice was a critical requirement for the removal of partisan politics, from the decision and processes of whether to prosecute anyone for alleged offenses against the state or not.
Citing the dismissal of former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, on account of his attempt to prosecute his colleague Ministers of State alleged to have engaged in corruption as a case in point, and the position of a former Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Theophilus Cudjoe, at a sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament recently, that officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) should be prosecuted for their roles in the payment of 94 million Euros to Construction Pioneers (CP), the PPP Candidate said “any political party, whose presidential candidate is not committed to this critical reform, in the face of evidence of the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, which could have bee used for development of the country, is not committed to fighting corruption and must be rejected by the electorate”.
According to William Dowokpor, the second reform the PPP administration will deliver, is an amendment of the 1992 constitution to allow the people to elect all District Assembly Members as well as District/Municipal/Metropolitan Chief Executives to ensure local accountability and rapid development simultaneously, with each district competing to develop faster.
William Dowokpor accused NDC and NPP for refusing to pursue this particular reform, because, they want to preserve control over local budgets to be able to reward their foot soldiers with treats from the state coffers; insisting that “any Presidential Candidate who is not committed to giving power back to the people to determine who governs them at the local level for rapid development does not know what it takes to transform this country and must be rejected by the electorate”.
On the third and final key reform, William Dowokpor called for the abolishment of the constitutional provision that allows Ministers of State to also serve as Members of Parliament, arguing that, Members of Parliament should be dedicated solely to their tasks as representatives of their constituencies and should be provided with adequate tools to deliver on the mandate as legislators with oversight responsibility over the Executive.
He said the current arrangement was responsible for Parliament’s inability to effectively exercise oversight responsibilities over the Executive, a condition that must be satisfied for good governance and transformational development to be attained and maintained.
Source: GhanaWeb
