He called me when he arrived in New York and gave me the address where he was staying that night. However, because of a previous engagement, I could not see him that evening. So, the following morning, at the height of the New York rush hour, I drove into the city from Connecticut to see him. Over lunch, Baah Wiredu, the former Finance Minister, shared with me his desire to solve the problem of abusive contracting and corruption in how the government awarded contracts. He was determined to do something about it and had complained about how a road construction contract given to a local chief was never honored. His determination to do something about such abuses showed in his face and his obvious weight loss was a testament to the task he envisioned. The plan to roll out a set of initiatives to take on corruption began the day I walked into his office to help him map out his entire reporting structure in the ministry. Just a few minutes after we sat down, a man walked in to tell him
This blog is all about making sense of what needs to be made sense of. The focus is usually the difficult questions we all need answered...and occasionally the story that baffles us all.