Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper has called for a conversation on the prosecution of government officials who are found to have in some ways mismanaged public funds.

Speaking on Metro TV on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, Kwesi Pratt said he is not against the idea of public officials facing the law but that, in his estimation should not be the priority.

Pratt says the focus should be on strengthening public institutions to ensure that they can ensure accountability and ‘prudent expenditure'.

Kwesi Pratt wondered why the state will spend time and resources to incarcerating people when it could have prevented them for engaging in the things that landed them in trouble.

The veteran journalist revealed that former Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority who was jailed in May 2020 is facing health issues at the Nsawam Prison.

"How can we sit here and be comfortable with the idea that William Tevie, Eugene Baffoe Bonnie and the others in the Nsawam prisons? Baffoe Bonnie is not well and I know that for a fact. They are in jail. There are serious moral questions that confront us and look at us in the face”.

Kwesi Pratt was speaking on calls for the prosecution of Kwaku Agyeman-Manu over the Sputnik V vaccine controversy.

Pratt says, as a matter of principle he is against the prosecution of public officials and will not advocate same for Agyeman-Manu.

“I take no pleasure in advocating people being sent to jail. Of course as a citizen, I’m interested in prudent expenditure of public funds but the emphasis should not be on jailing people.

‘The emphasis should be on prudent public expenditure, how do we ensure that the little resources we have will be applied to make sure that the citizens of Ghana can get portable water to drink”.

Pratt disclosed further that he has reasons to believe that Kwaku Agyeman-Manu did not act alone in breaching the law in his quest to get the vaccines.

“I’m look at what is unfolding and I’m getting other impressions. If the Minister of Health, on his own without authority as we are being told went on a frolic and violated the laws of Ghana and treated the laws of procurement with impunity, why has it become so very difficult to deal with the issues of principle?

“It’s becoming evident that this is not about the Minister of Health because if it was about him, it would have been so easier to deal with. It’s becoming a little bit more complicated. And it gets more complicated when you ask some relevant questions.

“What is it about this agreement that made all public officials who dealt with it so blind to the rules? I don’t want to believe that the Minister of Health alone has that clout to be able to blind everybody. There is some other truth we probably don’t know and may never know,” he said.

FLASHBACK: NCA $4m Scandal: Baffoe-Bonnie, Tevie and Osman Jailed For Causing Financial Loss

The Accra High Court has sentenced three former government officials to various terms in prison after convicting them of willfully causing financial loss of $4m to the state.

Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a former board chairman of the National Communication Authority (NCA) will serve six years imprisonment for his part in the $4m NCA scandal.

William Matthew Tetteh Tevie, a former Director-General of the NCA and Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator were each sentenced to five years imprisonment for also causing financial loss to the state in the scandal, reports Graphic Online’s Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson who was in the High Court Tuesday afternoon. [May 12, 2020].

Baffoe-Bonnie received more years because the court held that he personally benefited from the deal to a tune of $200,000, Ebo Hawkson reported.

The court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, also ordered the State to seize assets of the convicts to the tune of $3 million since the state has only recovered $1 million of the amount.

The three were found guilty of indulging in acts that led the State to lose the amount in a deal purchase of a cyber security surveillance equipment, known as the Pegasus machine, for the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which was sponsored by the NCA.

A businessman - George Derek Oppong, whose company acted as local agent for the company said to have supplied the equipment was however, acquitted and discharged by the court.

The court held that the prosecution could not prove its case against the businessman and also that whatever infractions that occurred during the deal were occasioned by the acts of Baffoe-Bonnie, Tevie and Osman.

According to the court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, the prosecution proved the guilt of the three persons beyond reasonable doubt.

The said alleged scandal is said to have happened in 2016.

Per the facts of the case, Baffoe-Bonnie, Tevie and Osman were allegedly aided by a private citizen, Oppong, to engage in the act.

According to the State, the previous administration had contracted an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, to supply listening equipment at a cost of $6 million to enable the authorities to monitor conversations of persons suspected to be engaged in terror activities.

A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, also charged $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.

The facts stated that the National Security did not have the money to fund the transaction, and for that reason the NCA, which has supervisory jurisdiction over the use of such equipment, was asked to fund the project.

It said $4 million was withdrawn from the accounts of the NCA and $1 million out of the withdrawn amount deposited into the account of the Israeli company.

According to the State, the remaining $3 million was lodged in the account of Oppong, who acted as a representative of the local agents, Infraloks Development Ltd.

Osman is alleged to have fronted for the entire deal.

Source: peacefmonline.com