Ban The Purchase Of Diaries For Distribution As Gifts By All Public-Sector Entities

One of the loopholes through which spendthrift public officials used to siphon off taxpayers' money to businesses owned by their families and friends, was by purchasing overpriced Christmas hampers, for distribution as Christmas gifts.

Tens of millions of cedis regularly disappeared from the public purse that way until President Mills ordered a halt to that outrage - in a nation struggling to balance its finances.

Luckily for the nation, President Mahama has continued that policy - and has maintained the ban imposed on the purchase of Christmas hampers by public-sector entities by President Mills.

What President Mahama should now do to save taxpayers' from bring diddled yet again, by spendthrift public officials, as the Christmas season approaches, is to ban the purchase of diaries by all public-sector entities - including the presidency and all state-owned enterprises - for distribution as gifts.

It is outrageous that in an era of austerity, when millions of families struggle daily to survive in a harsh economic climate, money that can be used to help improve the quality of life for people in poor rural and urban communities, is wasted on the purchase of diaries by public officials.

It is a practice that can never be justified - as it only enables those who benefit from  inflating the prices of goods and services supplied to public-sector entities to enrich themselves. Most of those who receive such gifts invariably give them away in any case - because they don't actually need them.

The time has now come for the government of President Mahama to ban the purchase of diaries by all public-sector entities for distribution as Christmas gifts. The world will not come to an end if President Mahama bans such wasteful expenditure by public-sector entities, will it? We rest our case.