The procurement of our hundred new buses has pried open a Pandora box; shocking revelations keep coming. But we are more concerned about the fact that the Transport Minister’s explanation to Parliament on the procedure of procuring the buses has been debunked by a very senior official of the Finance Ministry who is no less a person than the Director of Debt Management Department, Sahr Jusu, who has described as a black lie the minister’s claim that the loan to procure the buses was negotiated with the approval and participation of the Debt Department and the Finance Minister.

We are wondering who is saying the truth and who is telling the lie but we are inclined to believe the Debt Director as the Transport Minister by-passed parliament in the entire procurement process, so, there is the highest possibility that he would have also by-passed the Finance Ministry.

We have been observing that the Transport Minister has not been exhibiting maximum honesty in trying to defend the procurement of the buses and such is not good for his image as a minister. In Public Relations, truth is a cardinal virtue which can be effectively used to clean the dirtiest image; by giving explanations that are discredited the next day, the minister is doing himself more harm than good and is arousing more public suspicion.

In such embarrassing circumstances as the one the Transport Minister has found himself; the best thing to do is to come out plain and admit your faults and ask for forgiveness; fooling the public with transparent lies will only keep worsening the situation.

We are advising the minister to tell us exactly what transpired in the procurement of the hundred buses. After all, it has not yet been proven whether he embezzled any amount of money and the procurement of the buses, whether legally or illegally, is not a bad thing for the citizens of this nation who are stranded for transportation.

But now that the Debt Director has made it crystal clear that any national loan that did not go through parliament and the Finance Ministry is not binding on the government, we wonder who is going to repay the balance loan illegally obtained to procure the hundred buses. Is the Transport Minister going to single-handedly pay back the balance illicit loan?

Moreover, if the Transport Minister, indeed, lied to parliament that the Finance Ministry was involved in the negotiation of the loan, is he not guilty of perjury since parliament is equivalent to a High Court? The Transport Minister must be careful how to handle this situation so that he will not end up in more mess.