The New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates in the Akyem Swedru Constituency in the Eastern Region have denied allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bongo in the Upper East Region, Edward Bawa, that they have been put on the government’s payroll by the Controller and Accountant General for the past two years.
Speaking at a press conference at Akyem Swedru yesterday, the delegates gave Mr. Bawa 48 hours to retract the unfounded allegations and apologise to them or face the full rigours of the law.
The spokesperson for the 160 out of the 284 delegates in the constituency, Nana Ofosu-Afrifa, said on December 9, 2023, Mr Bawa made an emphatic statement in Parliament that the Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Kwaning–Bosompen, had put NPP delegates in the Akyem Swedru Constituency on the government payroll for two years, which was carried out by some media houses and social media outlets.
False allegation
He said the false and unfounded allegation by the MP had not only tarnished the image and hard-won reputation of Mr Kwaning–Bosompem but also the entire 284 NPP delegates of the NPP in the Akyem Swedru Constituency.
Nana Ofosu–Afrifa stated that as a member of the NDC, Mr Bawa’s interest would be to destroy the NPP government to score cheap political points for his party.
The delegates, he said, were of the suspicion that the said false information was given to Mr Bawa by the MP for Akyem Swedru, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, just to tarnish the image of the Controller and Accountant General, who has since declared his intention to contest the NPP parliamentary primary in the Akyem Swedru Constituency, come January 27, 2024.
But Mr Osei Nyarko in a Facebook post has since denied the allegations and called on his colleague MP for Bongo to retract and apologise.
Trustworthy
He described Mr Kwaning-Bosompem as a self-made man long before he became the Controller and Accountant General, and that if there was the need to help delegates in his constituency that would not be the burden that the state would have to bear, “as he has all it takes to execute his political ambition in the not-too-distant future.”
Nana Ofosu-Afrifa emphasised that Mr Kwaning-Bosompem had remained credible, high on integrity, trustworthy, intelligent, and professionally competent and had significantly turned the Public Financial Management System in Ghana around for which reason he would never do anything to undermine his integrity.
“As a professional chartered management accountant whose area of work requires him to safeguard the purse of the nation, he would not fraudulently commit such a heinous offence against the state and his constituency, friends and family,” he stressed.
Nana Ofosu-Afrifa said Mr. Bawa succinctly exhibited his ignorance and if not because of political expediency, he would have realised that it was in the era of the current Controller and Accountant General that government workers on the controller’s payroll had to be validated each month before they were paid.
“How then does he go for such an assignment to disgrace himself and to create a bad name for himself? he asked.
