More than 50% of respondents sampled in a Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana’s
pre-election survey conducted across the country, want government to retrieve
monies lost through mismanagement and perceived dubious deals.
The Head of Economics at IMANI Ghana, Patrick Stephenson, made the revelation
while presenting findings of the survey at the Mensvic Hotel in Accra. “It is
interesting to see that more than 50% of respondents we spoke to expected the
government or whichever government to retrieve resources that had been lost; and
so if you have to juxtapose this response or these results to the fact that if
we have had cases where we are not too sure whether resources have been
retrieved by the state for the people of Ghana , it becomes very worrying. You
wonder if politicians are doing the things that citizens are looking for,” Mr.
Stephenson said. According to him, respondents in the Ashanti Region, topped the
list of respondents making the request, with over 68% followed by the Upper East
region with 64%, then the Western Region which recorded about 60%.
Background
Several groups have called on government to retrieve monies lost in the Subah
Info Solutions deal, and other monies mismanaged in the Ghana Youth Employment
and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), and the Savannah Accelerated Development
Authority (SADA) among others.
Some individuals are in court over their
involvement in making such wrongful payments particularly under GYEEDA. But
there has been little or no attempt at prosecution or retrieving in the case of
SADA. The latest to hit the country this year, was the bus branding scandal,
which led to the resignation of the former Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor.
Though some payments have been made , government is yet to recover all monies
lost through these deals.
The survey
A total of 10,020 respondents drawn from all the ten
regions in Ghana were sampled for the survey.
The objectives of the
survey were as follows:
To weigh the level of interest of prospective
voters on matters of national importance.
To seek to highlight which issues
Ghanaian voters are passionate or care most about.
To determine if there are
patterns among common interests
To determine if there are any trends of note
across the country with regards to issues.
To estimate whether the weight of
an issue can tilt higher voter responses in a particular direction
MANIFESTO 2016
IMANI Ghana has in the last few weeks analyzed campaign promises made by
political parties, some on campaign platforms, and others in their manifesto.
The policy think tank observed that, out of the 247 promises made collectively
by six major political parties in the country, only 18 can be
assessed. |
