K.B Asante decries selling of state cars

Retired diplomat KB Asante has waded into the near endless controversy of the supposedly missing 200 cars at the presidency.

The former aide to Ghana's first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, described the practise of selling state cars to government officials who use them as "a bush way of doing things."

Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM on the brouhaha surrounding the missing cars at the presidency, the respected diplomat said: “We should change it [the current practice]. If we continue with this, it is a bush way of doing things. It is not correct.

"When a minister comes, he is given all the resources he needs to do his work, when he is going he leaves the car because the car is never his property.

“If a government property is being sold where there is proper auction, auctioneers will value them well before they are auctioned.

"You don’t say sell this to one individual. Because the public contributed to buy the car so if for some reason it is to be sold, it will be sold openly to the public and not necessarily to the minister.”

The Nana Akufo-Addo administration has said 200 cars cannot be accounted for at the presidency since they took over from the John Mahama administration.

The missing cars were detected after the current government took stock of the cars at the seat of government using documents made available by the transport officer at the seat of the Presidency.

The missing cars includes 122 Toyota Landcruisers, 43 Landcruiser Prados and 13 Mercedes Benz luxury cars.