Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi, a member of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament, has contended that the distribution of money by government appointee workers does not necessarily equate to corruption.
His comments come amid allegations that Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, Chief Executive of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), distributed money to delegates before the NPP Parliamentary primaries.
Appiah-Kubi emphasized that corruption involves altering decisions to favor a specific party, and until this cycle is complete, not every instance of bribery can be deemed corruption.
Addressing the accusations on JoyNews’ Newsfile, he stated, “In this particular instance, there is an allegation of the CEO having used public funds wrongly.
Does it make it corruption? If you take money that does not belong to you from one position to the other to your benefit, that is stealing.”
He further clarified, “That may not necessarily be corruption but stealing because corruption will go beyond the stealing to identify the action of the receiver and situate it within the law and see whether it is inconsistent.”
Appiah-Kubi justified his position by highlighting the NEIP CEO’s mandate to support start-ups and small businesses.
To thoroughly comprehend the allegations of corruption, he suggested an investigation to determine whether the recipients of the money were legitimate beneficiaries of the government agency.