The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) is asking state institutions sponsoring full page adverts in newspapers congratulating President John Mahama to stop immediately. Paying for such adverts is a waste of state resources and seek to serve the interest of only a small group of people, it said. "The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has noted with regret that some state institutions have taken full pages of newspapers to congratulate the President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for his inauguration and assumption of office. Institutions that have done this include the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), the Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Cocoa Board and the Ghana Aids Commission." Below is the Statement ISSUED BY GHANA INTEGRITY INITIATIVE (GII) Congratulations of the President by state institutions The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has noted with regret that some state institutions have taken full pages of newspapers to congratulate the President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for his inauguration and assumption of office. Institutions that have done this include the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), the Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Cocoa Board and the Ghana Aids Commission. These institutions have done this without even drawing the attention of the reading public to any products and services they provide, qualifying it as a commercial advertisement. GII is of the view that this is a waste of state resources and should cease immediately. Some of these state institutions do not normally advertise their services and have no justification to use state resources in this way. GII believes that these institutions, if they want to congratulate the President, they can use more ingenious and cheaper ways, such as letters, press releases or congratulatory cards, to convey their messages rather than using state resources this way. GII calls on the President to order that this stops immediately as it only serves the purpose of the heads and management of these institutions trying to attract the President’s attention for whatever reason. GII has no problem with purely commercial institutions such as AGAMs Group and ZOOMLION doing the same although it also has the potential of unnecessarily wanting to please the President and attracting his attention for potential patronage of their services and products by the government. GII feels morally obliged to draw the Ghanaian public’s attention to this, especially when it comes from government sub-vented institutions and agencies. Thank you, Vitus A. Azeem Executive Director – GII