The Deputy Minister of Education has dismissed calls for President John Mills to relocate to the Jubilee House describing the edifice as a complete waste of resources.
Mahama Ayariga said the president has thus far functioned effectively without occupying the Jubilee House.
He made the comment on Joy FM/MultiTV news analysis programme Newsfile during a discussion of the alleged �mansion� being put up by President John Mills to house his security guards at his private residence in Spintex, Accra.
Critics have questioned the rationale in putting up the security outhouse at his residence when the Jubilee House, put up by his predecessor John Kufuor and which provides a relatively tighter security still remains vacant.
One such critic Egbert Faibille Jnr. Editor of the Observer Newspaper believes the recent saga was hugely avoidable if the president had moved into the presidential edifice. He was worried the president would live such an edifice vacant and rather incur other expenditure on security.
But Mahama Ayariga is deeply amazed by that logic.
He averred, if at all, anybody has to be blamed for abandoning the Jubilee House, that person must not be President John Mills but rather ex-president John Kufuor who wasted resources in putting up the edifice in the first place.
Ayariga argued, the NDC whilst in opposition did not think the expenditure on Jubilee House was wise and the very fact that president John Mills has functioned effectively without occupying the edifice, two-and-half years in office is enough testament that the expenditure on Jubilee House was drain on the country�s meager resources.
�The president is functioning effectively and can function effectively and the fact that he resides at the Castle and performs his duties effectively shows that the expenditure on the Jubilee House itself, really, was unnecessary.
�The other argument is that because we have spent on it, the president must use it otherwise he is doing something wrong is [unsustainable]
�The person who started the process of wasting the resources should be held accountable and not the person who exercises his functions effectively as a president should be accused of wasting the resources,� he said.
He also chided the editor of the Searchlight Newspaper Ken Kuranchie of publishing �half truths� about government officials.
Meanwhile, editor in Chief of the New Crusading Guide News paper Malik Kweku Baako Jnr. is appalled by comments of the National Security Coordinator that the erstwhile Kufuor administration did not seek wise security counsel before putting up the Jubilee House.
Gbevlo Lartey said the president�s safety cannot be guaranteed because no security thinking went into the building of the edifice.
Malik Baako said the comment amounted to �a pathetic rationalization of a classic case of security inertia.�
Contrary to claims by the coordinator, Mr Baako stated emphatically that the ex-president had done a thorough job by diplomatically engaging the French Embassy for them to relocate.
Their proximity to the Jubilee House is considered a security threat to the presidency.
He argued further that the transitional team of the National Democratic Congress which conducted an audit of the Jubilee House concluded that 98 per cent of the job had been completed and the incoming President could reside in there whilst the remaining two per cent was completed.
He wondered why in two-and-half years the current administration could not find solution to the problem, only to come back to tell old discredited stories about the edifice.
�If you are on top of your job, two-and-half years are enough� for the coordinator and his people to have found a solution to the problem, he stated.
Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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