•He is of the view that the threat of jail does not deter public official hence the need for the state to vary its tactics
•He has revealed the condition of some ex-government appointees who are in jailKwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper has called for a conversation on the prosecution of government officials who are found to have in some ways mismanaged public funds.
Speaking on Metro TV on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, Kwesi Pratt said he is not against the idea of public officials facing the law but that, in his estimation should not be the priority.
Pratt says the focus should be on strengthening public institutions to ensure that they can ensure accountability and ‘prudent expenditure’.
Kwesi Pratt wondered why the state will spend time and resources to incarcerating people when it could have prevented them for engaging in the things that landed them in trouble.
The veteran journalist revealed that former Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority who was jailed in May 2020 is facing health issues at the Nsawam Prison.
“How can we sit here and be comfortable with the idea that William Tevie, Eugene Baffoe Bonnie and the others in the Nsawam prisons? Baffoe Bonnie is not well and I know that for a fact. They are in jail. There are serious moral questions that confront us and look at us in the face”.
Kwesi Pratt was speaking on calls for the prosecution of Kwaku Agyeman-Manu over the Sputnik V vaccine controversy.
Pratt says, as a matter of principle he is against the prosecution of public officials and will not advocate same for Agyeman-Manu.
“I take no pleasure in advocating people being sent to jail. Of course as a citizen, I’m interested in prudent expenditure of public funds but the emphasis should not be on jailing people.
‘The emphasis should be on prudent public expenditure, how do we ensure that the little resources we have will be applied to make sure that the citizens of Ghana can get portable water to drink”.
Pratt disclosed further that he has reasons to believe that Kwaku Agyeman-Manu did not act alone in breaching the law in his quest to get the vaccines.
“I’m look at what is unfolding and I’m getting other impressions. If the Minister of Health, on his own without authority as we are being told went on a frolic and violated the laws of Ghana and treated the laws of procurement with impunity, why has it become so very difficult to deal with the issues of principle?
“It’s becoming evident that this is not about the Minister of Health because if it was about him, it would have been so easier to deal with. It’s becoming a little bit more complicated. And it gets more complicated when you ask some relevant questions.
“What is it about this agreement that made all public officials who dealt with it so blind to the rules? I don’t want to believe that the Minister of Health alone has that clout to be able to blind everybody. There is some other truth we probably don’t know and may never know,” he said.
