Co-chair of the Citizens' Movement against Corruption (CMaC), Edem Senanu has averred that the State of the Nation's Address, presented by President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 was very weak on issues of good governance and anti-corruption.

In his presentation yesterday, President Akufo-Addo defended the integrity of his government, saying it accepts scrutiny and is also accountable. The President stressed that this was in line with past ideals of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Coming off the last few months where the resignation of the Special Prosecutor and the forced resignation of the Auditor General have prompted more corruption concerns in the Akufo-Addo administration, the President however says he is committed to “managing public resources with integrity, fairness, openness, and accountability.”

Speaking during his State of the Nation address, President Akufo-Addo said: “ours is not a government that shies away from public scrutiny. Far from it. That is not the NPP way.”

President Akufo-Addo recalled the repeal of the Criminal Libel law in 2001 when he was Attorney General and even the creation of the Office of Special Prosecutor office as evidence of his party’s commitment to democratic ideals.

“That is why my government, in 2019, enacted the Right to Information Act, which had been shirked by previous administrations, despite decades of agitation by journalists and civil society groups,” the President also said.

He also said his government “more than doubled funding for accountability institutions of the state, like CHRAJ, EOCO, the Judiciary, and the Auditor General.”

But reacting to the issues, Mr Senanu believes the president could have done better, especially on the 'forced' retirement of the former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo.

"The SONA  was very weak on issues of governance and anticorruption in terms of indicating the state.  The state of various sectors didn't come out strongly, the state of good governance didn't come out strongly, he also didn't comment on the auditor general, I would have been much much happier if he had done so."