The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition has called on the President to make public the investigative report on the former Director General of the Ghana Maritime Authority, Kwame Owusu to justify his appointment as Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Acting Head of Programmes at the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Bright Sowu said the report if made public will end all the public uproar that has greeted his new appointment.
Speaking on GBC’s Current Affairs Programme “Focus”, Mr. Sowu said the President should not have in the first place made that appointment looking at the controversies that led to Mr. Owusu’s exit from the Ghana Maritime Authority.
Mr. Kwame Owusu was accused of financial misappropriation when he was head of the Ghana Maritime Authority.
In the view of the GACC Acting Head of Programmes, appointing somebody to a high office of Board Chairman of the country`s revenue body should be of unquestionable character.
MP for Sekondi Andrew Egyapa Mercer said President Akufo-Addo has never been wrong in his judgement, and therefore he must have prior knowledge of the investigative report before making the appointment.
He said it is the legitimate right of those calling for the report to be made public to ensure transparency in governance.
Meanwhile, the NDC, says President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of the former Director of the Ghana Maritime Authority Kwame Owusu, as the new Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, is an endorsement of corruption.
A Statement signed by the General Secretary of the Party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said Mr. Owusu’s tenure as the Ghana Maritime Authority Board Chairman will be seen as another moment of wasteful expenditure and abuse of the public purse.
It said it is worried about the new heights corruption has assumed and given the present posturing of the President, the war against corruption is far from being won.
Mr Kwame Owusu resigned as MD of the Ghana Maritime Authority in February 2019 after he was accused of financial misappropriation. He is also alleged to have budgeted ¢10,000.00 to host a lunch meeting for 17 people at a hotel he owns, prompting conflict of interest concerns. The government subsequently instituted a probe into the matter but the findings have not been made public.
