Former President Rawlings, while delivering his speech at a rally to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the June 4, 1979 Uprising in Kumasi last Saturday, claimed that leading members of the government had gone into a pact with officials of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime led by former President Kufuor to overlook corrupt practices on both sides.
Government officials, he also said, were dipping their hands into state resources in their attempt to amass individual wealth at the expense of Ghanaians who elected them to serve their interests.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, a Deputy Information Minister, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, said President Mills, being an honest person, had consistently made corruption too expensive for any of his officials to indulge in.
That, he said, had earned the President praises from even his critics, some of whom had even vouched for him.
He indicated that the Transparency International report for 2010 praised Ghana as a less corrupt country in 2010 than it was in 2008.
According to him, attempts by former President Rawlings to malign the President and his officials with statements such as “the inevitable will happen” amounted to blackmail and threat.
He described the “scratch my back, I scratch yours” policy, by which persons in government, according to Mr Rawlings, had compromised their stand, as unfortunate, saying, “I would not want to believe that the former President presided over corruption during his over 19-year reign.”
Such statements, the deputy minister said, were meant to intimidate delegates who were yet to vote in the upcoming congress scheduled for Sunyani on July 8, 2011.
“One gets the sense that if things do not go the way of the Rawlingses, certain consequences may happen and the tendency of the statement is to arouse morbid fear among delegates to lose their free will in exercising their franchise,” he lamented.
Explaining further, Mr Okudjeto-Ablakwa said former President Rawlings should have cited specific instances, pointing out that the wholesale generalisation, with no specific mention of names, made it difficult to respond to the charges of corruption he had raised.
He wondered about the persistent calls for the prosecution of appointees in the previous administration when the likes of Messrs Frank Agyekum, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Kwadwo Mpiani, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby and others were still in court answering various charges of alleged financial impropriety brought against them.
“It is the duty of the Executive to investigate, prepare dockets and prosecute, while the Judiciary delivers judgement based on the merit of a case,” he said.
Mr Okudjeto-Ablakwa stated that President Mills would remain focused on the agenda ahead of him, since he would not be assessed on how well he responded to allegations by former President Rawlings.
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