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The Martin Amidu Award, the
Whistleblower Act of Ghana
E. Ablorh-Odjidja
June 17, 2013
How do we reward such a man; a man who risks his life, sticks to
his conscience and principle, goes against the wishes of a president in office
at the time and gets fired from his post?
Parliament should pass
a
Whistle Blower Act and name it
after Martin Amidu.
Martin Amidu is a hero. After being fired as the Attorney
General by President Atta-Mills, he went on a one man crime hunt
after Waterville Holdings.
This past Friday the Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that Martin's case against Waterville was just and that Waterville
should refund the already paid money to the state.
Joy News writes “The Justices in obiter statement, lauded Mr.
Amidu for his patriotism and chastised the lawyers for
Waterville for failing in their duty to protect the state from
the frivolous claims.”
This very statement from the Justices invites a look at how and
why of state institutions like the Attorney General’s office,
Tjhe payment to Waterville was made by government. The
Finance Ministry and Bank of Ghana appended their signatures of
approval to the documents, and therefore, for the
default judgment payment, as confirmed by
a judge.
The payment process brings up one critical question: How did the initial judge come
to find in the trial the merit for awarding the
default payment to Waterville, a payment
which the justices of the Supreme Court have now voided?
The next question goes to the Supreme
Court justices: If a sitting
administration, for some reason, could not prosecute the obvious crime
on its watch, like the Waterville
default judgment payment,
what will that same administration not do in an election year to retain power, so as to
frustrate future investigations of crimes, such as those behind
the Waterville saga?
Thankfully, the answer is in. The nine Supreme Court
Justices didn't wait for answers. They were not intimidated,
which is a mark of true justice.
The Justices' decision underlines significantly the importance
of what Martin Amidu has done. His boldness has been infectious. Again, how do we reward such a
man?
We know how some public officers are rewarded for
keeping silent and covering up crimes perpetrated against the
state.
Sometimes these officials do so because they are cowed by fear
into silence, but some
others are
brought into the silence because of a promise of the share of the
loot by the
wrongdoers.
Other officials even create the crime, find the wrongdoers and provide
the help for them to collect the loot.
These officials are the
enablers and there are many of them in high offices, as the case
against Waterville tends to indicate.
Martin Amidu is not an enabler. His recent act was on the side of
the state and justice. His act is stellar, the first of
its kind in fighting corruption. It should not be too
complex for the ordinary citizen to understand his act.
Therefore, there
is a need to
reward him.
Martin Amidu deserves an award as an upright citizen, In
his act, he has shown more bravery than the supposed bravery of
all the coup makers of the past. He has made the whole
legal system aware that this legal bravery can be undertaken and
accomplished.
A living memorial should be made for Amidu for this
singular patriotic act. .
By this act, Martin Amidu has saved the state millions of dollars today.
Not only this. His example will prevent more millions from being stolen in the
future, through such Waterville induced nefarious schemes.
Hence, the suggestion that Parliament should pass a
whistleblower act, if there is no such thing already, and name
it after Martin Amidu.
Second, Parliament should allow a provision in the act to give
10% of any money recovered from miscreants to be shared with the whistleblower.
As such, 10% of
the money recovered from Waterville Holdings must go into the
Kitty, to be shared with Martin Amidu.
The Whistleblower Protection Act has been in existence as a
Federal law in the United States since 1989 and it has worked.
As a concept, it “protects federal whistleblowers who work for
the government and report agency misconduct. A federal agency
violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities
take (or threaten to take) retaliatory personnel action against
any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information
by that employee or applicant.” Says Wikipedia.
There stands a process for protecting the state, the innocent;
and even the accused. It can be copied, or better
still, asked to be taught by the United States
government.
We need the Whistleblower Act in Ghana for crimes against the
state. Somebody must
have known all along that there was no government contract for Waterville
Holdings, contrary to what the default judgment found and based
the payment to Waterville on.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court has concluded that the default
judgment payment is a sham
because the claimed contract had not been approved by Parliament as required by
the Constitution.
With only two brain cells in one's head one should understand
the constitutional mandate required.
An article on CitiFMonline said “Mr. Ghartey, who was Attorney
General under the last New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, had
always insisted that, the (NPP) government had declined payment
of the judgment debt because the state had no contract with
Waterville Holdings.”
The evidence against Waterville was there in plain sight, yet no state institution
was anxious or willing to see it.
And Atta Mills, the president at the time, went on to
remove Martin Amidu from the Attorney General’s post because
Amidu will not go along with the attempt to hide the “gargantuan” crime
that had been perpetrated against the state.
Now, Amidu has been proved right by the Supreme Court in a 9-0
decision.
Strangely as a nation, we found in our hearts the will to laud President
Atta-Mills when he passed.
Immediately at Mills passing, we argued and debated about how to
build a memorial to honor him and we did settle on a decision.
President Mills' achievement, whatever it was, should remain
intact. In no way must this plea for Amidu shove what is
due Mills out of the way to national honor.
For what Martin Amidu has done in this case, it is time to
consider a fitting reward for him.
His act was legal, proper and transformative for legal behavior
in the state.
The Whistleblower Act of Ghana should be named the Martin Amidu
Act.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja,Publsiher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC,
June 17, 2013
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or reproduce,
with credits, unedited. If posted at a website, email a copy of
the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at
all.
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