Presidential Advisor and aide to President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has criticised former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for what she described as an unwillingness to take responsibility for decisions made while in office.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, December 19, Ms Bawah said public office holders must never be shielded from accountability and should always be prepared to explain their actions, even after leaving office.
“There is a certain latitude that you ought not to give your appointees. There is a certain level of responsibility that they must also feel,” she said.
She pointed to the country’s growing debt during Mr Ofori-Atta’s tenure and how he is not ready to face accountability.
“Under your tenure, Ghana had huge debts, literally very high debts, we bought at very high rates, very high commercial rates. Sometimes you hear some of those coupon rates, and you marvel.”
“So what are we going to do with this money?” she asked. “If it were your private business, irrespective of what you invested in, you might never be able to recoup, even to pay off these debts.”
Ms Bawah said it was troubling that someone entrusted with such responsibility would refuse to respond to investigations or questions.
“We had somebody who was responsible, someone who was tasked to do this. Why would such an individual even want to refuse to come and respond to whatever investigations or questions are raised?”
“If you serve as a finance minister, it is actually one of the highest levels of responsibility. And then you leave the office, and successive governments come in and say, ‘Look, we need to take a second look at these things,’” she added.
She said that ministers must see their roles not just as positions of power, but as serious duties owed to the public.
“If a minister feels responsible, not just for the authority reposed in them, but for the duty also placed on them, imagine how they undertake their duties,” she said.
According to her, that sense of responsibility should not end when a minister leaves office. Instead, it should compel them to answer questions about their time in government.
“When they are no longer ministers, they should feel the need either to clear your name or to explain to the citizens why you actually took certain decisions, or why some actions were taken,” she stated.
Ms Bawah reminded former ministers that they swear an oath of office, similar to that taken by the President, and that oath binds them to serve the people faithfully.
“Ministers are also committed in pretty much the same way as the President. They swear an oath of office. It is one that binds you in all faithfulness and diligence to the people that you are there to serve.”
She added that responsibility ultimately rests with the minister in charge, both during and after their tenure.
“When a minister is in office, he must always remember that the buck starts and stops with him. Even when there are questions to be answered when you leave, it is also your responsibility. It behoves you to be present to answer.”
Reflecting on the past eight years, she said she sometimes sympathised with former President Nana Akufo-Addo, suggesting he should have stepped aside after his first term.
“I do believe, as many have actually come to conclude, that maybe after his first time he really should have left office,” she said.
She noted that President Akufo-Addo also came into office with goodwill but spent much of his early years criticising the work of his predecessor.
“I remember he spent a lot of the first few years literally attacking everything that his predecessor had done or hadn’t done,” she said.
Ms Bawah cited the Meridian Port Services project in Tema as an example of a project that was heavily criticised but has since proven its value.
“That investment didn’t even make sense to them. There were a lot of criticisms of that project. But today, it is the one project that I believe actually symbolises what a leader can achieve when they set their mind to it.”
“We wake up every day to our responsibilities, and that is how it should be,” she added.