Mr Alex Emmanuel Nti, political analyst and financial engineer has said that the decision to prosecute persons involved in the misappropriation of COVID-19 funds as captured in the recent Auditor General’s report, is long overdue.
Speaking on ‘Ebaanosen’, a Plan-B FM current show, the political analyst noted that persons who were reported to have misapplied funds meant for education on the prevention of COVID-19 infection, treatment and other related cases of the pandemic are walking the streets of Ghana free and added that it is so sad to see that happen.
He has therefore urged the state agencies like the Attorney General and Office of the Special Prosecutor, mandated to deal with such crimes to swiftly move in and deal with the crimes commited adding that culprits should not be left the hook.
Commenting further Mr Nti stated that what is clear in the Auditor General’s report is that some of the funds meant for COVID-19 interventions were not used for such purposes and rather wasted and possibly stolen. “This alone gives the state enough reason to the bottom of this and ensure complete prosecution everyone associated with these misappropriation”, the political analyst remarked.
He told listeners of Plan-B FM that within the remit of the Auditor General, it does not have prosecution prosecutorial powers hence the need to have these misappropriation of COVID-19 fund cases go to other state agencies which the power to investigate and prosecute anyone found culpable.
“Yes we as a country have delayed in prosecution these persons. The Auditor General’s report has been made public for sometime now and yet we are yet to see anyone prosecuted for such crime. What are we waiting for?”, he quizzed and added that is so sad to observe that not a single person has been prosecuted despite the overwhelming evidences against some institutions, persons and even private businesses.
Concluding he noted that if these cases are left the way they are, other people would be enticed into committing similar crime because the notion would have been that one can easily get away with such crime; something that one gets severely punished for in other jurisdiction as witnessed in some African countries where people were stripped of their designations and also made to refund the funds wasted or stolen.
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