The Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Oquaye has hit back at the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Ghana over his claim that Ghana should be seeking to achieve a country without corruption.
Sharing his thoughts on the Ghana Beyond Aid policy at a seminar, Mr Ron Strikker wondered why the government will not focus on pursuing an agenda of Ghana beyond corruption since in his view corruption is inimical to the growth of the country.
“You need a good business climate to attract foreign investment…corruption is a very bad thing ad companies suffer and will stay away if they think that they are going to be harassed by corruption in a certain country… Your official policy is Ghana Beyond Aid; why not Ghana Beyond Corruption?”.
Reacting to the comments at the 4th African Network of parliamentary budget officers conference in Accra, Prof. Oquaye said Africans should be angry at such posturing by diplomats in their country.
“Ghana beyond aid, in essence should be Africa without aid. Poverty breeds all manner of incompetence and therefore it pains me that those who are not prepared to help us in the building of a world economic order in the Western world turn round and make mockery of us and say we should be thinking of corruption (beyond aid) rather than Ghana beyond aid.
“This kind of ridiculing is tragic and must be condemned by all Africans. Because if we do not tackle the fundamental there will be nothing to build an economic system and accounting system over. I feel very strongly about this,” he said.