Bombshell: SIGA Boss Kpessa-Whyte Exposes Gov’t Appointees for Buying Awards

State Interests and Governance Authority Director-General Prof. Michael Kpessa-Whyte has exposed how an award scheme allegedly sold honours to government appointees, revealing that he was personally asked to pay GH¢25,000 or GH¢50,000 to receive a “Best CEO of the Year” award he never sought.

Speaking out against the growing culture of purchased prestige, Prof. Kpessa-Whyte disclosed that he recently received a letter informing him he had been adjudged “Best CEO of the Year” and was invited to receive the award at an event held last Saturday at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel.

“Ordinarily, recognition for public service should be a matter of humility, gratitude, and sober reflection,” he said in a statement, adding, “No serious public officer should be indifferent to appreciation where such appreciation is grounded in transparent assessment, demonstrable performance, public impact and institutional credibility.”
However, he noted, “public recognition must never be reduced to a transaction in which the recipient first pays for the honour before being celebrated.”

Serious Misgivings
Prof. Kpessa-Whyte said he had serious misgivings about the award from the outset. “In this particular case, I did not know which year the award covered. I did not know the criteria used for the assessment. I did not know the composition of the assessment panel. I did not know the indicators against which performance was measured.

“I did not know who the other contenders were. I did not know whether any independent verification had been conducted.

“Above all, I did not consider myself the ‘Best CEO,’ because in public service there is always much more work to be done, many more lives to touch, and many more institutional reforms to pursue.”

Caution
Out of caution, he said, he advised his staff to contact the organisers and seek clarity. “It was only then that we discovered that attendance at the event to receive the supposed honour was tied to payment.

“The options communicated were either a sponsorship package of GH¢50,000 or the purchase of a dinner table of eight at GH¢25,000.”

Spotlight
The revelation has thrown a spotlight on the “Ghana Ministers of State Excellence Honours” and similar schemes that Prof. Kpessa-Whyte says exploit public officials’ desire for validation while diverting state resources from core mandates.

He warned that at a time when Ghana is working to reset the country and rebuild public trust, every cedi must be treated as sacred.

He urged all public appointees to decline any award where payment is a condition for participation. “History will not remember us for the number of awards we collected,” he said. “It will remember us for whether we used the opportunity of office to make Ghana better. That is the only honour worth pursuing.”