Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed outrage over the decision to allow key suspects in the ongoing Ghana Airport Company Limited Cocaine Smuggling Scandal to enjoy two-thirds of their salaries while on interdiction.
Making a reference to an ‘intercepted’ letter, (see attached) the North Tongu MP noted that the decision by the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to offer interdicted employees two-third of their monthly salary, is not deterrent enough.
“This is absolutely ridiculous and does not serve as sufficient deterrence to other operatives at the Kotoka International Airport who may be tempted to engage in such egregious conduct,” Mr. Ablakwa wrote on Facebook.
Mr. Ablakwa also pointed out how difficult it would be to retrieve salaries from those found complicit, stating, “Whereas the state can refund salaries to interdicted suspects who may be acquitted, it is virtually impossible for the state to retrieve these salaries from those found complicit.”
The MP questioned the lack of accountability among Ghanaian airport officials, wondering What makes airport officials in Belgium see what Ghanaian airport officials failed to see despite the massive investments made at Terminal 3.
“Why are some Ghanaian airport operatives not scared of the consequences in aiding cocaine smugglers? Who are their enablers in high places?”
He called for a stricter approach in the war against drug smuggling by immediately adopting a strict and uncompromising attitude in the war against drug smuggling which he believes Ghana is “disgracefully losing in recent years with dire international implications”.
“We must usher in a new era at our airports where all officials from the board, management, staff to other attached operatives recognize that there is a heavy price to pay — not this practice of go sit home and enjoy two-thirds salary for no work done,” he bemoaned.
By: Bright Yao Dzakah | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
