Corruption fight: Prof. Adei dares EOCO to go after Amoako-Atta

Professor Stephen Adei, the former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), has challenged the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to go after the former Roads and Highways Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta for stating that staff at the ministry engaged in corrupt practices.

Prof.

Adei’s challenge is in response to EOCO’s statement on his comments about road contractors having to pay bribes to be awarded a contract in the country.

EOCO said it has completed an investigation into the claims by the educationist, deeming them “presumptuous and lacking evidence.”

But Prof.

Adei, speaking to TV3, described EOCO’s report as a “misplaced priority,” asking the anti-graft body to go after the Atiwa West lawmaker.

“Why haven’t they disposed of the statement by the [former] minister who said that his ministry is full of thieves?

The minister who referred the case to them said in August last year that his ministry is full of thieves.”

He further noted that he denied revealing the name of the contractor who informed him about the apparent corruption in the road sector, stating that corruption in the public sector is public knowledge.

According to him, he shelved the identity of his source to save his business from becoming the target of the government.

“They wanted the name of the contractor and I said that you and I know what will happen to the contractor, not in terms of what he has said but that means the end of their business,” he stated.

“If I and you know believe that the roads which get washed after a year and two years where other places last for twenty-five is because they have gone through clean one, I will leave it, I wouldn’t like to engage in this further,” he noted.

“In their investigation, they’ve told Ghanaians that it is presumptuous, it is up to them, let Ghanaians make their judgement.”

However, Prof.

Adei criticised the public and the media for not probing the former minister’s statement to name the individuals at the Roads Ministry who engage in corrupt activities.

“Here is an insider who said that his minister is full of thieves, you Ghanaians are not prepared to ask him to name the thieves in his ministry…and if a head of an institution says his ministry is full of thieves and you want to have discussion with Stephen Adei because he said that someone had told him that somebody demanded a bribe from him, and that is a national issue, I’m sorry, is a misplaced priority,” he told TV3’s Beatrice Adu.