A member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is urging the Mills administration to shut down government’s information dissemination outfit, the Ministry of Information, because its existence is “absolutely unnecessary.” Mr John Ndebugri, a former Member of Parliament for Zebilla, said recent reports that a presidential aide at the Information Ministry, Mr Stanislav Xoese Dogbe, squandered a whopping GH¢169,000 on Christmas hampers for journalists and to promote public education on the 2010 budget, provide enough grounds for such an action. Mr Dogbe, described as a member of government’s communication team, has been assailed on all sides after the Daily Guide newspaper made the allegations informed by an internal audit report from the ministry. Although Mr Dogbe has been tight-lipped on the issue after the news broke, Information Minister, John Tia, has, in a press statement, said the allegations against Mr Dogbe were false. “The allegations are baseless, unfounded and without merit as available records here indicate that the said fund was used for the intended purpose and the project account is awaiting validation by external auditors. Indeed, Mr. Dogbe was not in charge of disbursing the fund,” the statement said. But Mr Ndebugri, who sounded off as an effective troubleshooter, said the developments must force a shutdown of the Information Ministry whilst the BNI must be immediately detailed to arrest Mr Dogbe for questioning. According to him, failure to arrest the presidential aide would amount to hypocrisy of a sort as Mr Asamoah Boateng, a former minister at the same ministry, is currently being tried in court for alleged financial malfeasance over contracts awarded at the ministry during the Kufuor administration. “In my considered view, this particular matter brings into bold relief – in my very candid view – the necessity to scrap the Ministry of Information.” He said instead of establishing a ministry to communicate government information including the budget, the communication role must be played by the various ministries who have a responsibility to account for their share of the budget. In addition, MPs could extend government information to their constituents. “The Ministry of Information is actually redundant; it is a propaganda outfit for parties in power, which shouldn’t be the case. Ministries don’t belong to political parties; ministries belong to the state,” he said. “I don’t see why the tax payer should be financing a ministry for the purposes of blowing the horn of a political party, especially when that political party [performs] most dismally.” Accountability Meanwhile Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrisu in a reaction said the cash alleged to have been used by Mr Dogbe “must be accounted for and will be accounted for.” “I believe that, essentially, all public funds being used by ministries, departments and agencies must necessarily be accounted for in the public interest and must be used purposely for the public good.” Mr Iddrisu said government allocating funds through the Information Ministry for public education is not unprecedented. He cited the redenomination of the cedi, the Ghana@50 celebrations and several other state projects for which governments have had to earmark funds to educate the citizenry. The Communications Minister believes the Information Ministry is very critical to the work of government as it has a “statutory” duty to inform the public on government policies. Meanwhile Information Minister John Tia says the account on the said project is “awaiting validation by external auditors.” Listen to excerpts of comments by Messrs Ndebugri and Iddrisu Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana