Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
THE HULLABALOO surrounding the controversial circumstances of the sale of Merchant Bank Ghana Limited to Fortiz Equity Fund does not appear to be ending.
In what could be described as ?an action too late?, the Christian Council of Ghana had asked the government to explain the reasons why the once vibrant financial institution was sold to Fortiz without providing adequate information to the public.
?The government/SSNIT should provide adequate information of what made selling a public asset like Merchant Bank a better deal for Ghanaians,? the Council said in a communiqu? it issued at the close of 2013.
The communiqu? jointly signed by Rt Rev Francis Amenu and Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, Chairman and General Secretary respectively, specifically made the Merchant Bank issue a sub-topic for discussion apart from national issues such as road accidents, education, health, the environment, economy, corruption, electoral reforms, and the FDA versus Tobinco Pharmacy fracas.
According to the Christian Council, the government needs to explain what made Fortiz? offer ?better than that of the First Rand and others.?
?The government should explain to Ghanaians why it decided to go ahead to sell Merchant Bank to Fortiz Equity Fund despite the controversies surrounding the entire deal and the public outcry that came with it.?
The communiqu? also urged political parties particularly the NDC and NPP to ?stop the partisan manner in which they discuss the Merchant Bank sale in order to help the ordinary Ghanaian to appreciate the real issues about the sale.?
Electoral Reforms
The Council also tasked the Electoral Commission (EC) to work closely with all stakeholders particularly political parties to ?undertake electoral reforms, with inputs from the religious bodies among others.?
It said the EC should be able to prepare a voters? register at the right time to enable the political parties to review and factor it into their election preparations.
The Council also urged the EC to develop ?a more structured and systematic recruitment and training of election officials and an appropriate regulation together with a code of conduct to be developed for all officials including the volunteers.?
It also asked the political parties to avoid the politicization of national effort towards reforming the electoral process and advised the media to make ?deliberate efforts to reform its programmes and publications to avoid the polarization of the electoral system.?
Tobinco vrs FDA
The Council waded into the fracas between the regulator and the pharmaceutical giant, commending the Ministry of Health and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health for their efforts in intervening on the issue.
It however, said, ?The effort to resolve the issue should be hastened in order to restore the dwindling fortunes of Tobinco Pharmacy.?
The Council also urged the FDA to use its offices to facilitate Tobinco and other related companies to become more viable to be able to compete with those in other parts of the world adding ?we should take the necessary efforts to protect indigenous industries by helping them meet international quality standards.?
Corruption
The communiqu? asked the government to explain why it had not executed some of the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee and also investigate and prosecute officials involved in the misappropriation of over GH?2billion by public officials as contained in the Auditor General?s Report.
It also asked the government to come clean on the status of its promise to retrieve monies wrongfully paid to Waterville and Isofoton as judgement debts and form contracts with SADA, GYEEDA and GRA.
It said the government?s decision to publish contracts above GH?5million with recurring multiple budgets in the media was commendable and also commended the government for launching the Code of Ethics for Ministers of state and political appointees.
The communiqu? urged the public to expose corrupt public officials and urged Christians to bring their Christian values to bare in their places of work.
Environment
The Christian Council again urged traditional leaders to partner the government to flush out miners whose activities continued to cause destruction to the environment.
It called for the streamlining of galamsey activites and tasked the assemblies to join the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement strategies to save the environment.
By William Yaw Owusu
