The Member of Parliament for Wa West, Superintendent (Rtd.) Peter Lanchene Toobu has laughed off comments by the Member of Parliament for Abetifi, Bryan Acheampong that the president’s travel details need to be reclassified as secret or top secret.
It will be recalled that Mr. Acheampong, speaking in Parliament during the debate on the 2022 budget statement, said Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa demanding full disclosure of the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s recent foreign trips without using the official presidential jet was needless. He insisted that the focus should rather be on the President’s safety and not the cost of his foreign travels.
But speaking to Samuel Mbura on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Supt (rtd) Toobu said the idea that taxpayers cannot question the president on the cost of his travels cannot be tolerated in a democratic dispensation.
He noted that the president chartering flights for international travels is a ‘strange’ arrangement adding that it is even more incumbent on the presidency to disclose the cost as he [the president] spends the taxpayers’ monies.
“We are gradually bastardizing the principles underpinning national security. Checks and Balances are part of our constitutional arrangements. Parliament has oversight responsibilities over the Judiciary and over the Executive. National Security is part of the Executive. The people’s money, the people’s taxes in the consolidated fund, the president takes some to rent a private jet. He takes some to pay for whatever he wants. He takes some for his personal security; whatever he does, it is from the taxpayer,” he explained.
Supt (rtd) Toobu explained that while enquiring about the president’s personal engagements or the content of meetings on foreign trips may be unfair, asking how much the trips cost the taxpayer is fair.
He quoted William Proxmire [a former US Senator] who quipped that “power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous”.
You are not willing to tell the people how much you spent and that is democracy? When we talk about secrets, when we talk about top secrets in governance; using the people’s money and failing to account for it cannot be called as confidentiality not to talk of secret or top secret,” he explained.
A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith | Ghana
