In 2001, by the time the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government exited the scene, government appointees had made away with their official vehicles. It was an administrative directive that a retiring officer of state or government institution could have his or her official vehicle revalued by the State Transport Company Limited, and made to […]
The post The Saga goes on…Govt. Appointees and Official Cars appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
In 2001, by the time the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government exited the scene, government appointees had made away with their official vehicles. It was an administrative directive that a retiring officer of state or government institution could have his or her official vehicle revalued by the State Transport Company Limited, and made to pay the depreciated price. The emphasis was on saloon cars only, however, it was reported that senior appointees like the late Prof. Kofi Awoonor took his Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) home.
In 2009, with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government exiting, the convention was applied, but this time, with emphasis on saloon cars only. However, hell broke loose, as the NDC managed to poison the minds of Ghanaians by accusing the NPP of grabbing cars. Very sad how violent raids were organised into the privacies of ex-appointees, and cars were seized indiscriminately. Someone, who was not an appointee, had his Mercedes Benz saloon car snatched from him; this was later reported as mistaken identity.
The car seizing epidemic spread wildly in alarming proportions, and the current president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was not spared, as his personal SUV was targeted. The former president also had some of his cars seized.
Suddenly, we had statesmen and other propagandists coming on air to express their thoughts on how wrong it was for a retiring appointee to purchase his official vehicle. Call it Socialist propaganda, and a lot of people accepted this and went straight to attack former ministers and deputy ministers of state.
The then President issued a fiat that, from that day going on forward, no appointee will be allowed to purchase his or her official car. We, as a nation, responded and said, “Yoooo, we have heard.”
Come 2017, and revelations had it that hundreds of government vehicles were missing from the presidential car pool. The blame game begun; the NPP rightly raised the alarm, and the NDC quickly denied any knowledge of embezzling state vehicles. In the midst of all this, the NPP came out with hard evidence, and the NDC stood its ground that it is innocent, unless proven guilty.
In this storm, an NDC activist and MP, Sam George, was alleged to have come out to swear that hundreds of state vehicles in the presidential pool were auctioned privately to NDC appointees. However, he pleaded innocent in this matter, claiming that all he said was that some government appointees bought their official vehicles after they were revalued. This is miles apart from what was reported on social media, as alleging what he said.
Now if Sam George spoke only about appointees retaining their official vehicles, then the said media house owes Ghanaians lots of explanations, especially, at this hour of accusations and counter-accusations, where no fabrications are needed.
Assuming what Sam George was alleged to have said was the clear-water truth, then it is the NDC which has been dishonest and untruthful to Ghanaians.
On the other hand, if the NDC saw its appointees purchasing their official vehicles at depreciated prices, it also comes to show how dishonest this party has been with Ghanaians. After making the NPP appointees look like grabbing all in their sight, and labeling the party as nation wreckers, the NDC could, in the end, turn out to do same, but, this time, under cover of darkness.
What at all is it with an appointee’s official vehicle? The fact is that it is rather advisable to allow the appointee to keep his or her official vehicle, after paying some money for it, on retirement.
Looking at the increasing cost of maintenance after three years, it would be more of a burden to the ministry if it kept such vehicles in its car pool. The cost of maintenance will skyrocket and be a burden on the budget of the ministry such that, in the long run, that vehicle will be auctioned out as scrap, with the state losing out, big time.
It will be a very ideal and wise policy to take, if appointees and officials retire with their official vehicles, so that the high maintenance cost is borne by them, rather than on the state. It is much cheaper and more profitable for the state to offload such burdens, and pass the responsibility onto the original user.
Having said this, we need to look at the gathering storm of accusation and counter-accusations between the NPP and NDC. I am tempted to lean on the NPP side for this reason.
An official of the NPP Transition Team was given a fairly new Toyota Land Cruiser V8 SUV from the pool of presidential cars to go on official rounds across the nation. One fine Sunday, he got to his residence in Accra, and called his pal to accompany him for lunch at their favourite restaurant. On their way, the front tyre burst, but for the low speed, they would have encountered a serious accident. While getting the vehicle parked on a bank premises, they found out that one of the back tyres was also faulty, with bumps emerging from of it. The spare tyre was flat, and when it was taken to a vulcanizer, it was found to be in a very bad state. This tyre was stitched and replaced with the good back tyre, so that all the front tyres were in good condition.
Driving less than two kilometres on, the repaired tyre also got burst. For a good looking and well-conditioned car to have bad used tyres, spelt something. Someone had changed the good tyres and replaced them with bad ones.
It is, therefore, not surprising when stories come out about stolen cars from the presidency. Rumors are rife of government vehicles having had their chassis numbers changed, and other re-designing work made to make them look as if they were private vehicles.
What we need to do now is to retrieve all such vehicles and review the status of vehicles of retiring appointees and officials. For me, I still believe we must allow the original users to keep them. After all, they will have to foot the growing maintenance bill.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
The post The Saga goes on…Govt. Appointees and Official Cars appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
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