Terkper ?disobeys? Duffuor directive

0
SETH TERKPER
SETH TERKPER
SETH TERKPERMy Vice President Kofi Bentil and I have been musing over the actions of the Finance Minister re disobeying his Predecessor superior’s directive to save Ghana millions of tax payer funds in payroll fraud by transiting the payroll to a more stable platform.

It would be recalled that the Finance Minister told me on public radio that he is not bound by the decisions of his predecessor. However, that singular decision his predecessor took was blessed by all the current senior officers of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department and the current Finance Minister was simply to follow.
In fact, I had earlier discussed the matter with a foremost legal brain in Ghana and a good friend you all should know by now. Kofi Bentil agrees with his thoughts and suggests that the decisions of the Finance Minister by his own contests a wilful disregard of his superior’s instruction. The effect of that is the loss of millions of dollars. His dereliction of duty has been very costly and Parliament must call and question him. The one who appointed the finance minister must take a serious view to his wilful act which may have caused Ghana so many millions of dollars and led to a malfunction of the accounting system.
Below is relevant portion of the former Finance Minister?s letter.
June 12, 2012
(ATTENTION: MR. R. TUFFUOR)
Dear Mr. Tuffuor
RUNNING OF LIVE ACTIVE PAYROll ON IPPD3
1. Over the past 6 years, your organization has been running live payroll from the IPPD2 with numerous challenges. The IPPD3 was therefore procured in 2008 as a back-up system. As it is now, your organization has two payroll systems, viz. IPPD2 (oracle) and IPPD3 (Akatua) and it is my understanding that since the purchase of the IPPD3 it has been running in parallel on standby.
2. Given the current challenges with the payroll, I request that you give the iPPD3 on-site team currentiy running the live pensions access to run the live active payroll in its totality. To this end, please write to the vendors of the IPPD3, i.e., the SOFTtribe Ltd, and request for a comprehensive project roll-out plan for implementation.
3. You are also requested to submit a monthly report from both the IPPD2 and IPPD3 with effect from this, June 2012.
4. Kindly treat this request with all the ‘urgency it deserves.
Yours sincerely
HON. DR. KWABENA DUFUOR ? MINISTER
cc: Hon. Deputy Ministers, MoFEP
Chief Director, MoFEP
The Auditor-General, Ghana Audit Service -,
The Chairman, Public Services Commission
The Chief Executive Officer, FWSC
The Deputy Controller & Accountant-General, (F&A)
The Deputy Controller & Accountant-General, (FMS)
The Deputy Controller & Accountant-General, (T)

Kofi pointed me to the relevant legal provisions
The Criminal Code, ACT 29
Section 179A?Causing Loss, Damage or Injury to Property.

(1) Any person who by a wilful act or omission causes loss, damage or injury to the property of any public body or any agency of the State commits an offence.

(2) Any person who in the course of any transaction or business with a public body or any agency of the State intentionally causes damage or loss whether economic or otherwise to the body or agency commits an offence.

(3) Any person through whose wilful, malicious or fraudulent action or omission?

(a) the State incurs a financial loss; or

(b) the security of the State is endangered, commits an offence.

(4) In this section “public body” includes the State, Government of Ghana, public board or corporation, public institution and any company or other body in which the State or a public corporation or other statutory body has a proprietary interest.

Like ? Share
  • 21 people like this.
  • 2 shares
  • Mawuli Dake Franklin,I think u got a TERRIBLE ADVISE from ya “foremost legal brains” on this one bro. His predecessor [Dr. Dufour] gave the policy directive in his capacity as the substantive Minister at the time with the standing to do so. At that point, yes the current Minister [Seth Tekper] was Dufour’s Deputy Minister. Dufour was removed & Tekper took over as the substantive Minister. At which point Tekper assumed the authority & standing that Dufour had when he issued those directives. In this capacity, Tekper has the authority to withdraw, discontinue, modify, maintain or change the said directive to suit his own plans for his portfolio. Under these circumstances, he can be guilty of a lot of things, but definitely not “disobedience”. Terkper HAS NOT DISOBEYED Dufour’s directives. As he only could have if the predecessor’s directive was in a policy form that was binding- for example a LAW. We can judge Trekpe based on his actions & he shld be held responsible for his actions. I listened to him on Citi FM last week or so & the host repeatedly asked him to justify his decision on this one- which he failed to do. His decision obviously continues to cost Ghana millions of dollars each month. So there must be some accountability- especially as he has failed to provide any tangible reasons to justify his decision. So unless may be, he can tell us what informed his decision, he sure could be “guilty” of a lot of things including causing financial loss etc. But certainly not disobeying anyone’s orders…*M
    6 hrs ? Like ? 2
  • Franklin Cudjoe Mawuli Dake oh, but all this plenty grammar, you just agreed with me in the end. anaa? I see your only challenge is the use of the word “Disobeyed”. Do you know if Tekper;s decisions were based on monthly updates to Dufour? It is English Language so we may use words differently, but the more substantive matters are what you point out- He MUST explain why he did what he did.
    6 hrs ? Edited ? Like ? 2
  • Olivia Okailey Okai Franklin Cudjoe we don’t listen to anybody bro and we don’t follow post decisions simplicita…
    6 hrs ? Like
  • Mawuli Dake Yes ooo Franklin. haha. But i thought it was important, bcos aside u, i’ve heard this “disobeying his superior’s orders” repeated around- including from the journalist who interviewed the finance minister last week. And from ya post you framed it as though, he actually disobeyed his superior for which he was culpable…
    6 hrs ? Like ? 1
  • Iddrisu Abdul Matinu Mr Franklin Cudjoe, was the programme operating before Tekper took over? Was he assign to its implementation by his predecessor whilst he Duffour was in office?
    Why #not_proceed_to_court on your premise? I think someone needs to test the law and I hope you do that big bro.
    Source-Franklin Cudjoe

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here