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The Minister for Foreign Affairs is not against accountability; he has voluntarily put out the FACTS since the end of the evacuation exercise. Passenger manifests.
Receipts. Signed sheets and other relevant records were all made available to the Minority in an RTI response. The Minister also invited the public, the Minority and the Auditor-General to use their microscopes to obtain an even clearer view of the GHc49.72m expended on the evacuation of our compatriots from South Africa.
The Minority is justified, just like every Ghanaian, in demanding accountability from every public office holder. But when legitimate scrutiny extends into the realm of personal attacks, unfounded allegations and the deliberate concoction of half-truths, it must be called out.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs voluntarily rendered accounts even before anyone asked for them. First of its kind for any Foreign Minister in Ghana. If he had any intention of concealing the use of public funds, that would have manifested through opaque and dodgy mechanisms shrouded in secrecy.
In fact, he wouldn’t have even announced the GHc16m contribution from businessman Mr Ibrahim Mahama. He would’ve collected MTN’s donation and sat on it.
Now, let’s go to the substance of the Minority’s claims.
The commercial flight figures
The Minority alleged that, after reviewing more than 200 pages of documents, they discovered that only 247 passengers arrived on commercial tickets.
What is fascinating is that the airlines are known. Ethiopian Airlines, Air Tanzania, ASKY and EgyptAir are not occult organisations.
For the avoidance of doubt:
A) Ethiopian Airlines brought in 260 passengers on commercial tickets.
B) Air Tanzania brought in 598 passengers.
C) ASKY brought in 130 passengers.
D) EgyptAir brought in 20 passengers.
TOTAL: 1,008 PASSENGERS. This clearly defeats the false claim that only 247 commercial tickets were accounted for.
This is verifiable information provided as part of the RTI response. (Receipts attached)
A Minority seeking to conduct proper due diligence would have contacted these airlines to confirm the receipts submitted by the Ministry. At the very least, they could have authenticated whether the receipts were genuine and then proceeded to establish whether the total number of passengers and the amounts presented by the MFA tallied.
That is what scrutiny means.
The Minority could not even take the pains to count the 1,008 commercial-flight receipts. I understand that could be tedious work, but there are party boys or even colleague MPs who could sit at a table and count them to arrive at the total number of passengers who came in on commercial tickets.
When you abandon this simple and basic counting or tallying exercise and concoct imaginary figures to suit your mischief, one is tempted to conclude that you are deliberately being economical with the truth merely to drag the Minister for Foreign Affairs through the mud.
The GH¢5,000 and GH¢500 allowance
The Minority again concluded, based on their own analysis, that only 824 passengers received both the GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance and the GH¢500 transportation allowance. They then deducted that figure from the 1,964 total evacuees and concluded that 1,140 returnees received no packages and demanded answers for GH¢6.27 m funds.
And in another twisted claim, the Minority alleged that 1,100 people signed for only the GH¢500 transportation allowance, while only 1,508 signed for the GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance.
So, where do we draw the line?
People who signed and received both amounts are 824; hence, the Minister must account for (1964-824 = 1,140 evacuees)
Then you turn around and also allege that those who received only GHc5,000 are 1,508 and those who received only GHc500 are 1,100.
The above, from your own analysis, clearly points to the fact that those who received the GHc5,000 package or the GHc500 package exceed the 800 you conveniently put out.
Do we conclude that only those whose signatures appear in corresponding positions on both sheets received the monies?
NO!
In fact, it took more than 10 hours for MFA officers to count and cross-check each signature. They initially arrived at 1,955 people who had signed both sheets. The Minister asked for a recount, and after another thorough exercise, they identified the nine-person difference.
The TOTAL NUMBER OF EVACUEES who signed and received the GHc5,000 reintegration and the GHc500 transportation allowances were 1,964, not less, not more.
It requires patience and a little meticulous work to arrive at the right conclusion.
The 442 Minors
The Minority again alleged that the Ministry/Minister could not account for some 442 minors and, therefore, the Minister must account for GH¢2.43 million.
They arrived at this lame conclusion by asking how a two-year-old child could have signed for or received GH¢5,500, forgetting that the minors arrived with parents or guardians who signed on their behalf.
This also addresses the allegation of duplicate signatures.
You do not expect a parent who signed on behalf of one, two or three minors to suddenly produce a different signature for each child.
In a worst-case scenario, it should also be appreciated that some signatures could appear similar because of fatigue, stress and trauma.
But because the Minister wanted to satisfy our curiosity about the Minority’s claims, we went back to interrogate the records. We discovered NO duplication of pages or names as alleged, except for parents who signed for their wards.
At the press conference held by the Majority, which also received and interrogated the records, we arrived at the same conclusion.
Someone may ask: should we expect the Majority to discover anything different?
No. When the facts on record corroborate the attached affidavit given to all stakeholders.
The Minority and Majority received the same data. If both sides, in their usual political elements, choose to pick and choose what they want to put out, that does not, in any way, impute culpability to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the sector Minister.
The basic conclusion should therefore be straightforward:
- It should not be difficult to contact the airlines to ascertain what they charged and authenticate the receipts they issued.
- It should not be difficult, with diligence, to ascertain the names of those who signed for the transportation and reintegration allowances. Even simple random sampling through phone calls could have cured the false claims.
- Hon. Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, there are no alarming discrepancies in the report you received. What is alarming is that basic arithmetic appears to have been glossed over while performing such an important oversight responsibility.
If this important role is reduced to who shouts the loudest in the media, the figures you are seeking could be sitting right before you, yet remain difficult to see.
Why do the names not always appear in the same order
It is obvious that part of the Minority’s confusion stems from its inability to appreciate why Kofi Mensah (for this analysis) could be No.1 on the GH¢5,000 reintegration sheet and also No. 1 on the GH¢500 transportation sheet for the commercial flights, while Ama Kumi may not appear in the same position on the chartered-flight lists.
Ama, who is No.1 on the GH¢5,000 list, could appear as No.8 or even No. 700 on the GH¢500 list.
The explanation is simple.
During phase one of evacuations, the GH¢500 transportation allowance list was coordinated by NADMO at a separate desk, while the MFA coordinated the GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance list on another desk. You don’t need spiritual powers to confirm this from NADMO unless you have a different agenda.
Don’t forget: this was a multisectoral national exercise. NADMO, RED CROSS, GHS, NATIONAL SECURITY, SECURITY SERVICES, GACL, AIRTELTIGO, MFA, etc. No one received an allowance for this exercise.
After the first phase involving three chartered flights, it was resolved that all payments would be handled on one desk during the commercial-flight evacuation. That is why the names on the commercial-flight lists aligned, while those on the chartered-flight lists varied in sequence.
That difference in sequence does not mean people disappeared. It does not mean money disappeared. And it certainly does not, on its own, establish wrongdoing. So where’s the alleged “massive discrepancies?”
As the Ranking Member on the Minority side on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Jinapor admitted in several interviews, they are not accusing the Minister of any underhand dealings, YET! Nothing stops the Minority from writing to the MFA seeking explanation for the so-called nonexistent anomalies. Running to hold a press conference on a holy Sunday without due diligence is incompetence. It’s simply a desperate attempt to look for scandals where there’s none.
Accountability is necessary. Scrutiny is necessary. Questions must be asked, and every pesewa of public money must be accounted for.
But accountability must be driven by facts, evidence, arithmetic rigour and due diligence. Not conjecture, selective interpretation of data or political sensationalism.
Finally, the 200-page RTI was scanned and sent by mail, as requested. If the receiver noticed anything unusual, it’s fair to ask.
MFA has invited the Auditor-General to audit the numbers. Nothing stops the Minority from engaging an independent audit firm they listed and paying for it.
They should remember to task those auditors to do thorough work on the GHc44m taxpayers’ money spent on COVID-19 quarantine, even though people were charged for it.
Let’s stop the unnecessary shouting and do some reading comprehension under this post.