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General News of Thursday, 10 December 2015
Source: Myjoyonline.com
Executive Secretary of GII, Vitus Azeem
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has rendered an unqualified apology to President John Dramani Mahama for the use of the word ‘mentoring’ in its anti-corruption statement released on December 9, 2015.
In a press statement yesterday, the GII accused government of “just busy tickling with the symptoms” of corruption in the country and not fighting it in a way other countries in the sub-region are doing.
Their statement came after the president listed a number of achievements by his government in the fight against corruption.
President Mahama made reference to progress made so far in corruption cases at the National Service Secretariat, the Ghana Youth Employment Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), and judgment debt paid to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome and some other cases in court.
He also dismissed the interpretation put on a Transparency International (TI) report that Ghana is the second most corrupt country in Africa.
But the Ghana chapter of TI (GII) defended the report and “appealed to the president to turn to President Muhamadu Buhari and President Magufuli for mentoring and act more swiftly to curb corruption in this country,” the statement read.
In a new press statement signed by its Executive Director, Vitus Adaboo Azeem, the above sentence has been withdrawn from the statement.
Below is the full statement
GHANA INTEGRITY INITIATIVE
(GHANA CHAPTER OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL)
The attention of the Board and Management of the Ghana Integrity Initiative has been drawn to the inappropriate use of the word, “mentoring” in the last paragraph of the Press release it issued yesterday to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day and wish to apologise unreservedly to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama and, indeed, the people of this country for the use of the word. GII wishes to withdraw that entire sentence from the Press Release.
We recognise that the President is the first gentleman of the land and must be treated with all the necessary respect from all the citizens of the country.
We wish to emphasize that the Press Release did not intend to denigrate the President and should not be seen in that light. We sincerely call on all Ghanaians to avoid using this error to divert the import of the Press Release which calls on the President to use all his powers to “BREAK THE CORRUPTION CHAIN”
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