Host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, Dr. Randy Abbey has registered his frustration with how public workers abuse their office and cause financial loss to the state.
Commenting on the controversial Sky Train Project during panel discussion on Wednesday morning, the learned TV host questioned the government spokesperson, Eric Amoako Twum who had justified the deal if the private sector will applaud such acts.
“If it was the private sector or their own money, will they be taking such decisions? And it appears that when it comes to the public service you see a lot of such decision making and I have come to a conclusion that in the public service people play dumb to steal,” he stated categorically on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
Using Nestlé as a reference, Dr. Abbey said, “There is no way that the board, whether Ghana, whether it’s a sub-regional board… will tolerate this for one week,” he asserted.
On the opening day of the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg in 2019, Ghana signed an agreement with a South African company for a train project that would be built above the ground.
The train tracks were to be 194 km long and transport nearly 400,000 passengers a year within Greater Accra, covering five routes. Skytrain, the project’s trademarked brand name, was to create 5,000 jobs throughout the construction period.
With $2 million invested in the project, the Minority in Parliament is demanding a refund to the state.
But the Former Minister of Railways Development clarified on Monday, July 17, that the payment was made by the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, which is authorized to handle such transactions.
He emphasized that if the Minority wants a refund, they should direct their request to the Auditor General, who is legally mandated to ask the Fund to refund the oney, rather than implicating his ministry.
By: Akua Karle Okyere | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
