Chief Executive Director of State Transport Company (STC), Nana Akomea, has bemoaned the cost of international travels under successive governments Ghana has had.
In a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Akomea said that most international travels by government officials are needless and even some of the persons taken on these travels are not required to be there.
“If you look at international travels from 1993, when we started our democracy, year after year the cost of travels of government from the presidency down to the directors under the ministries, I’m sure we will tear our hair out.“… what is the point of some of these international travels, you go and is only talk and eat. When I was part of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and we went to the United Nations, there were about 20 people from parliament alone. I remember one of the visits where we went to visit Kofi Annan, we could not even go into his office, a lot of us had to stand outside.
“… the problem of international travels is deeply systemic and it requires a determined effort to resolve it. If the Auditor-General can do any edit of international travels from 1993 there will be a major scandal in this country,” he said.
The CEO of STC further stated that the decision by the government to put in measures to curb these unnecessary travels by government officials is very significant.
The government has suspended all foreign travels by its officials except for approved critical and statutory travels.
Speaking at a press briefing, the Finance Minister, Ken Offori-Atta who announced the measure, explained that the suspension on travels and other expenditure reduction measures are necessary to ease the burden on the public purse as the country goes through economic hardships.
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