The NDC is still licking its wounds, hoping it will heal soon and secure the mandate of Ghanaians once again.

But the party has recognised the need to look into what caused its downfall so to work on it and build a formidable front for the next general election.

It, therefore, commissioned a 13-member committee spearheaded by Prof. Kwesi Botchwey to look into what caused their defeat and produce an honest report.

According to the Today Newspaper, the yet to be released report among other things states that the NDC lost the election because of arrogance and corruption–though this is something a report is not needed to ascertain.

The report is said to cite examples of issues of corruption such the bus branding scandal, Brazil 2014 debacle, SADA among others as having contributed to the party’s defeat.

Via Today Newspaper:

The 67-page report, which did not mince words, underscored the need for the NDC to have a credible leadership who will selflessly champion the cause of the party.

“The concern of the party supporters is to have leaders who will share in their sorrows and fight for the cause of the party even at the peril of their lives,” the report said.

It points out that the credibility of some leading members of the party who were part of the various campaign teams of the party was in doubt as their interest was to enrich their pockets and not to help the party retain power, hence the call for a change in leadership.

For instance, the committee bemoaned the situation where some party regional executives while on campaign tour in the various constituencies in their respective regions, particularly in Ashanti and Western Regions, were caught in hotels with their girl friends, allegedly spending monies which were meant for campaign.

The committee was also not happy how resources for the NDC’s campaign were distributed, noting that it played a key role in the party’s humiliating electoral defeat in 2016.

According to the report, only few people who were close to the corridors of power were resourced, while the rest were left to run their own campaign, a situation the committee asserted, affected the electoral fortunes of the party.

“There was no equity in the distribution of logistics and sharing of money for the campaign,” the report stressed.

What the committee found more worrying was how some party national; regional and constituency executives dubiously used the party’s name to solicit for funds from some corporate institutions and individuals in the country with the promise of giving them contracts if the party was retained.

Meanwhile, the report makes it clear that those alleged to have received monies from corporate institutions using the name of the part must be made to account for such monies.

It, therefore, recommended that monies and resources for any future electioneering campaign team of the party should be disbursed by the party’s national treasurer for the sake of accountability.

The report further recommended that a centralised committee chaired by the national treasurer be set up for every national election to raise funds for the party.

In view of this, the committee asked that all those who were put in charge of any of the various campaign teams should be made to render accounts.

That, the report said, will help reduce the anger in some supporters and members of the party who still think that their leaders embezzled campaign funds.