Committee for Joint Action (CJA) Commends President Mills

Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Information and a member of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) has commended President John Evans Atta Mill for allowing members of his administration to be part of the CJA which is a pressure group. He said the CJA members were from different political parties and of different persuasions who all believed in social democratic principles and political stability. Mr Ablakwa was speaking at a Public Forum on the theme �The National Situation� organized by the CJA in Accra to climax the end of year 2011. He said the CJA was largely committed to monitoring issues of national interest that affected the citizens of the country and had demonstrated heavily against several issues since its formation in 2005. Mr Ablakwa noted that politicians, especially Members of Parliament and other Public Officials in the country were not opening up to the people in their constituencies but rather opened up to foreigners who did not know the culture and traditions of the country. He said the CJA had been on top of the Auditor General and the Attorney General's Department to expose and prosecute past and present corrupt Public Officials who embezzled state monies irrespective of their political affiliation. Mr Ablakwa said some past Public Officials sold Government lands and properties to themselves,and disclosed that President Mills had issued a statement prohibiting officials in his administration from buying houses or lands belonging to the state. He indicated that no Government or political party will remain in power forever and so leadership of all political parties irrespective of their orientation should protect and promote the national interest . Mr Felix Ofosu Kwakye of the Research and Advocacy Platform and a member of CJA, said President Mills' administration had uplifted the living conditions of Ghanaians by increasing fuel prices rapidly. He noted that institutions such as the then Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Commission Of Human Rights and Administrative Justice which were supposed to fight corruption during the erstwhile NPP adminstration remained silent because all directors and prosecutors of such institutions were acting as bosses. An economist and a member of the NPP Mr Kwame Pianim acknowledged that the NDC administration under President Mills had performed creditably in terms of fighting corruption and pursuing sound economic management. A leading member of the Socialist Forum of Ghana and a Member of the CJA, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr said the CJA had remained intact in spite of the fact that its strong members had been offered ministerial positions in the Prof Mills administration. He said the NPP now in opposition was criticizing the CJA for not attacking the NDC administration led by President Mills for poor performance. Mr Pratt noted that it will be senseless to expect the CJA to criticize the Mills administration which he said had performed far better than the Kuffuor administration �The exploitation of our natural resources by the West in the NPP regime has now become a thing of the past in this NDC administration.�