Co-founder and former Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi, says the corruption-related offences allegedly committed by Labianca Company Limited, raise a number of troubling questions about the “alarming decline in governance standards in our 4th Republic”.
Council of State member, Eunice Jacqueline Buah Asomah-Hinneh, who owns Labianca Company, was accused by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) of using her position to get a favourable decision from the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority, leading to a reduction in her company’s tax liabilities.
The Special Prosecutor, has since recovered GH¢ 1 million from Labianca, but Professor Gyimah-Boadi, said the President, by appointing Ms. Eunice Asomah-Hinneh, to serve on the board of a public agency, set her up for conflict of interest.
“Secondly, is it appropriate for the President to appoint a member of the Council of State to a state agency board? Was there an objectively compelling public interest-related reason for the President to make such an appointment?”
He questioned, if her appointment was run by the Council of State.
“And if the answer is yes, doesn’t the Council of State’s approval of the appointment of one of its members to a state agency board position smack of institutional self-dealing on the part of the Council of State?”
He said, it is obvious that the entire episode speaks specifically to the entrenchment of incumbent leaders and political elite capture of Ghana “and generally, to the alarming decline in governance standards in our 4th Republic.”
He further, recommended that the event should be a wake-up call for the urgent need for an “ethics czar at the Presidency, Executive Branch, Council of State, and other important decision-making and public resource allocation agencies and institutions.”
