General News of Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Source: Joy Online
The Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative, Vitus Azeem, has demanded of President John Mahama to prove his commitment to fighting corruption, by backing his words with “action”.
Mr. Azeem noted that little had been heard or seen from President Mahama regarding his determination to combating corruption, over the last 100 days that he had been in office as President of the Republic of Ghana.
Assessing the president’s first 100 days in office on the Joy FM Super Morning Show Wednesday, the Head of the anti-graft agency said President Mahama has not openly demonstrated the will to deal with perceived correction in his government.
“The president must be prompt and order investigations into allegations of corruption and he must make the reports public; this helps in the fight against corruption,” Mr. Azeem stressed.
He said contrary to what late President John Atta Mills did barely two months after he was sworn into Office; President Mahama is yet to be heard directing his appointees to declare their assets.
“If he has given such directives” and yet some of his ministers and appointees have failed to comply, “what action has he taken against those who have not complied,” Mr. Azeem queried.
“We are expecting action, not just words; action, action, action!”
Meanwhile, a Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Dr. Michael Kpessah-Whyte has suggested that the government should consider widening the tax net to rake in more revenue from the informal sector, which currently commands about 85 per cent of potential tax contributors.
According to Dr. Kpessah-Whyte, the over reliance on the 15 per cent tax contributors from the formal sector over the years, cannot help the country to achieve the desired development.