Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minister of the Interior
Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minister of the Interior, says the Government is not interested in witch-hunting and going on a wild goose chase in dealing with corruption.
Mubarak, responding to the Comptroller General’s speech claiming his reputation was being tarnished in the electronic media space for alleged malfeasance in the purchase of a bus, guaranteed that the government would only investigate such cases when necessary or was evidence-based.
The Minister made this statement when he paid a maiden visit to the Headquarters of the Ghana Immigration Service in Accra.
“I can assure you that we are not interested in witch-hunting. We will only go into things where we find that they need to be investigated. We don’t have time to waste on things that may not be necessary…If you have anything that you think would be of importance to us, please come forward with facts so that we will be able to investigate whatever it is,” he said.
The Minister mentioned plans to improve the efficiency and operations of the various security services under his ministry despite, funding challenges.
These included going into public-private partnerships for both profit and non-profit ventures without external interference in security matters, adoption of the cashless system, among other interventions to improve efficiency and minimise corruption.
“So, we will be seeing a lot more PPP within the Ministry of the Interior where it is very necessary, making sure that, those PPPs do not interfere with our internal security…
Technology is also going to be another area that we are going to pursue very vigorously…I can assure you that one of my main targets would be that in the next one year, none of the services under the Ministry will be collecting hard cash. We want to use technology to improve almost everything that we are doing within the Ministry,” he added.
Kwame Asuah Takyi, the Comptroller-General, Ghana Immigration Service, on his part, highlighted the challenges of the service and pleaded with the new minister to intervene.
“Notwithstanding the gain made over the years, a number of challenges continue to hinder the operational efficiency of the service, and we look forward under your leadership, Honourable Minister to advance our efforts in the coming years,” he said.