This newspaper has been keenly following the allegations of corruption against the Youth and Sports Minister, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak. While we do not want to jump to conclusions on whether he is guilty or not, the scale of the allegations against him point to one fact that the financial administration practices at the ministry, and indeed most of the ministries, departments and agencies leave much to be desired.
What is unfolding is a test case for President John Evans Atta Mills and his administration, which rode to power on the campaign to root out corruption in high places. Thank God the revelation came sooner than later, otherwise anyone could image the scale of loss to the state in one or four years in one ministry had the Chief Accountant and Chief Director of the Ministry not blown the whistle.
In that vein, this newspaper sees the Chief Accountant and the Chief Director as 'Whistleblowers' and not criminals as the security agencies and some politicians would like Ghanaians to believe. In fact, President Mills and his government have the first case of 'Whistleblowers' to deal with and the whole world is watching how the government handles this particular case, especially when the issue involves a minister serving under President Mills.
The Whistleblowers' Act mandates the government to protect and reward anyone who divulges information on corruption, conflict of interest and nepotism at any ministry, department and agency. Given this provision, it is a breach of the letter and spirit of the Act, which was passed by Parliament, for the security agencies to be harassing the Whistleblowers who acted boldly to stop further leakage of our scarce revenue to private pockets.
To ask the Whistleblowers to go on leave smacks of an attempt to punish them, rather than concentrating on the substance of the allegations against the Sports Minister. Quite often when corruption of such magnitude is exposed, investigators tend to focus on how the information was leaked and who leaked it and not the crime.
Rather than feeling embarrassed by the Chief Accountant and the Chief Director's patriotic act, the government should rather reward them with promotion.
Since President Mills rode to power on the back of fighting corruption, any of his men and women found guilty of duping the state must be made to face the music. By setting a good example with the current case on hand, the President can stand on the moral high ground to preach probity and accountability, which have lost their meaning .
This newspaper thinks that the policy, custom or norm of using our scarce resources as consultation fees for mallams or occultists to ensure victory for our national teams is outmoded and should be stopped immediately. It is amazing that in these days of modern and scientific football, we can continue to use such outmoded methods of winning matches in draining our resources.
Source: Chronicle
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