Former President John Dramani Mahama has accused the current administration of failing to efficiently deal with corruption cases and people involved.

Speaking at a lecture at the Academic City University College in Accra, the former President noted that although a difficult task, his government was able to sanction some persons implicated in corruption scandals who were later found guilty of the charges leveled against them.

However, he said the current administration has failed in this regard.

“Unfortunately that is part of the problem we are facing today that the President cannot sack people who have been accused of corruption and so on and so forth,” he said.

He recalled two instances during his administration where people who engaged in corrupt acts were sanctioned and asked the President to emulate his ways.

“There had been a procurement that had taken place and the minister had not gone through the procurement processes properly and as a result of that, there was an accusation that the cost of the procurement was far above what it should be and it created a major scandal for the government. So I asked the Attorney- General and Chief of Staff at the time to investigate the allegations. They did and the report confirmed that the procurement process has not gone through properly," he noted.

Giving further details on the outcome of the cases, Mr Mahama said one of the culprits resigned and the other was jailed but later released on health grounds.

"I called the minister involved …and she tendered her resignation,” he recounted.

During the lecture, Mr Mahama asserted that dealing with corruption is one of the most difficult tasks Presidents face while in office.

He said this is often because of the people involved and their (close) relationship with the President.

“The very important aspect of decision-making for Presidents is dealing with corruption. It is not as easy as you think it is, and sometimes the person who has been involved in corruption is somebody that you know very well and probably somebody who has been a member of your team, but unfortunately, has fallen by the wayside,” he said.

He noted that regardless, every President must remain firm and deal with the situation fairly and squarely to serve as a deterrent to others who plan on conducting themselves in a similar manner.

The Leadership Seminar Series by Academic City University College is a programme designed as part of the University’s efforts to nurture the next generation of African leaders. It is aimed at ensuring that knowledge developed in the class is directly applied to address contemporary societal problems.

According to the facilitators of this programme, the course is expected to provide a platform for students to interact with renowned African leaders who have risen through the heights of their career; from political, innovation, education, and industrial realms through sheer force of will and have impacted many lives.

Mr Mahama who was the keynote speaker during this lecture spoke to the students about what leadership entails. He stressed that two key features of leadership are responsibility and decision making.

“Leadership is about responsibility first and decision making, you must accept responsibility for the position that you occupy and once you are the leader, people look up to you to take responsibility and based upon that responsibility, take decisive action. You cannot take proper decisions when you have not accepted responsibility for taking those decisions,” he said.

Source: The Independent Ghana