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Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local Chapter of Transparency International (TI), has expressed worry over statements made by President Mills regarding the �Muntaka saga�, when the President met with senior journalists and news editors at the Castle Gardens on Thursday to mark his first anniversary in office. The GII believes some remarks made by President Mills yesterday smacks of endorsement or in support of Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, former Sports Minister and NDC MP for Asawase, who resigned in the wake of corruption allegations levelled against him by some staff of the Ministry. The anti-corruption body opines that President Mills�s answers to questions regarding the Muntaka saga is a discouragement to the fight against corruption, which he has touted. Responding to questions about the handling of the corruption allegations against the former Sports Minister, the president said Muntaka did not resign because of corruption, �there wasn�t corruption, it was because of indiscretion on his part�I think that you are drawing some very, very quick conclusions�you are giving a judgment on the basis of facts which I don�t think can always be verified.� For resigning his post, President Mills stated that �Muntaka deserves commendation and not condemnation.� �Are we saying that this is the first time that ministers of state have gone abroad with girl friends, this is the first time that ministers of state have infringed the law, have spent state money on themselves?� The President retorted as Metro TV�s Mary-Anne Acolatse wondered whether accepting Muntaka�s resignation in the face of the allegations was clear enough a demonstration of a serious commitment to fighting corruption on the part of the president. But this assertion, GII contends, runs contrary to the President�s declaration that he would deal with allegations of corruption without asking for evidence to do so. Anti-corruption campaigner and Executive Secretary of the GII, Vitus Azeem, in an interview on OmanFM, a radio station based in Accra, was of the view that the President should not have endorsed it or tried to justify it in anyway. �It goes against the fight against corruption. The fact that (similar acts occurred)�in the past does not justify it and does not make it right,� he stated.