Muntaka saga: Accountant's interdiction, blow to anti-corruption campaigners

Muntaka saga: Accountant's interdiction, blow to corruption campaigners- Kojo Asante A governance expert at the Centre of Democratic Development has chided the Mills administration over its handling of the two public officials caught up in the unending controversy at the Sports Ministry. Kojo Asante laments the ordered interdiction by President Atta Mills of Adim Odoom, Accountant at the Sports Ministry and the Ministry’s Chief Director, Albert Ampong does not urgur well for exposing corruption in the Public sector. The two, in a 17-point allegation submitted to the President accused the Sports Minister, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed of wide range corrupt activities. A probe by national security exonerated the minister of corrupt allegations, citing lack of evidence by the accusers. The two have subsequently been interdicted with an order by the President to the head of civil service to sanction them. This Kojo Asante believes will discourage future whistle blowers from exposing corrupt activities in the Public Service. He told Citi News it is the first time he could recall a senior public official to have ‘blown the whistle’ against a minister of state and the treatment meted out to them could “send the wrong message.” For a government which has made fighting corruption a pillar in its administration, Kojo Asante said the action taken by President Mills is a “big blow for corruption campaigners.” But a lecturer at the Ghana School of Law disagrees. Abdul Aziz could not fathom how the two accusers could be described as whistle blowers. Quoting the Whistle Blower Act 270, he said any prospective whistle blower must make disclosure of impropriety, and must act in god faith. According to him, Adim Odoom and Albert Ampong’s accusations were not in good faith. If Odoom had not been transferred, he would not have blown the whistle, he argued. The accusations, he stressed rather “cast a slur on his professional integrity.” Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com