[ 2017-02-11 ]

KB Asante, retired diplomat and aide to former President Kwame Nkrumah

Selling State cars is ‘bush’ – KB Asante
KB Asante, retired diplomat and aide to former
President Kwame Nkrumah, has frowned upon the
practice of selling state vehicles to public
servants who used them, describing the practice as
‘bush.’

His contemptuous description is coming at the
heels of a raging and near endless controversy
surrounding ‘missing and stolen’ state
vehicles since the current political
administration assumed the leadership of the
country.

The respected former diplomat, who was part of the
team which accompanied Kwame Nkrumah to Bawku in
the Upper East Region when the late president
escaped the in-famous Kulungugu grenade
assassination attempt, said such a practice which
has been the norm in the country for several years
“is a bush way of doing things.”

Known for frankly stating his mind on national
issues, especially controversial ones such as the
one under review, he told Citi FM, an Accra-based
radio station, that such vehicles must be disposed
of through an auctioning process so interested
citizens can bid.

Punching holes in what some have described as
obnoxious act, he said it is open to wanton abuse
of state property saying, “We should change it
[the current practice]. If we continue with this,
it is a bush way of doing things. It is not
correct. When a minister comes, he is given all
the resources he needs to do his work, when he is
going he leaves the car because the car is never
his property.

“If a government property is being sold where
there is proper auction, auctioneers will value
them well before they are auctioned. You don’t
say sell this to one individual. Because the
public contributed to buy the car so if for some
reason it is to be sold, it will be sold openly to
the public and not necessarily to the
minister.”

In the wake of the raging missing cars brouhaha
and the sale of some very expensive state cars,
one of them described as a crest car for a
relative paltry amount of money, a national
discourse on the subject has been triggered.

The car being referred to is said to possess
special features and was said to have been sold to
a government appointee outside Accra. The sale has
since been revoked, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.

As mentioned by KB Asante (as he is fondly
called), all the vehicles so far sold to former
government appointees went for very low prices,
making many wonder whether the professional
valuers who are state employees did their work in
the interest of the state.

The response to the brouhaha originating from
Johnny Osei Kofi, former Deputy Chief of Staff in
the erstwhile government, did not address the very
low cost of vehicles sold to former ministers and
other government appointees in his response to the
missing vehicles as alleged by the NPP
government.

Administrator General

In a related development, the Administrator
General, David Yaro, who has been very active in
the controversy since it broke, has demanded an
amendment to the law regarding the subject so that
those who fail to comply with releasing state
assets are sanctioned.

He complained that with the current status of the
law, he, as the Administrator General, is
restricted in what he can do about the retrieval
of vehicles which are not turned in.

On the substantive issue of missing vehicles which
according to the president’s Acting
Communications Director, stands at 208, he said
the former Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, should be
held responsible, his position hinged on the fact
that it was the gentleman who signed documents
covering all state properties, including vehicles,
at the presidency and presented to the Transition
Team.

He reportedly told an Accra radio station that
“If there are areas that need clarification, the
minister going out is invited to help to go
through the clarification and everything before
you (new minister) sign and take off.

“One way of making sure they [cars] are missing
is that you had your copy of the handing over
notes, did you discover the missing vehicles
during the transition? If you did, was it raised
with whoever signed? In the case of the office of
the president, it was signed off by the Chief of
Staff, so, the former chief of staff should have
been questioned to explain how those vehicles came
not to be there,” Mr Yaro explained.

Expressing his misgivings concerning the brouhaha,
he added, “We are shocked and we feel very bad
about this situation because between 2001 and
2009, similar things happened, and so the law
establishing our office was promulgated to take
care of such things to stem the occurrence of such
things, so, if they are happening again it’s so
sad. It means our law is not being very effective
or we are not respecting the tenets of the law.”

Source - dailyguide.com

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