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Mills must
apologise to Ghanaians
Arthur Kobiana
Kennedy
Last week, from far-away London, the pretentions of the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to accountability were exposed for all
to see. A Southwark Crown court ruled that during the 1990’s,
the British Construction firm, Mabey and Johnson, paid Ghana
government officials bribes, ranging from 500 pounds to 55,000
pounds in order to secure contracts worth about 26 million
pounds sterling. The information revealed in court only
accounted for about a third of the curiously-titled “Ghana
Development Fund” and it is almost certain that other names,
maybe bigger than those named were also paid money to influence
the award of contracts.
Amongst the Ghanaian officials named are Mr. George Sipa Yankey,
the Minister of Health, Mr. Kwame Peprah, the former Minister of
Finance and current Chairman of Board of Directors of SSNIT, Dr
Quarshie and Alhaji Siddique Boniface.
As expected, both President Mills and former President Rawlings
have reacted. President Mills has directed that the findings of
the British court be investigated and a report submitted to him
as soon as possible.
What else is another investigation going to find? Mr. Yankey and
Mr. Peprah were convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction
in Ghana of causing financial loss to the state in the Quality
Grain matter and sentenced to prison terms. They were later
pardoned by former President Kufuor on grounds of compassion.
Despite these convictions, President Mills appointed them to
their current positions. So if the Attorney General finds, after
spending more tax-payer money to investigate, that indeed the
said officials took bribes, will President Mills ask them to
resign? If he does, would it mean that he respects British
courts more than our own? It would seem that despite all the
noise made, the President, by appointing these officials in the
first place, showed that he did not really care about
corruption. He should apologize to Ghanaians for appointing them
to office despite their convictions.
As for former President Rawlings, his reaction was breath-taking
and comical. In his statement, the former President, under whose
watch the bribery took place said “Probity, accountability and
service to the people are the basis upon which the NDC was
founded. I have espoused these tenets since 1982 and have
consistently reminded the current NDC government of the need to
urgently pursue and prosecute persons who have been and continue
to remain unaccountable to the people. Since coming to power in
2009, we have failed to pursue the criminal activities of the
past NPP government who in connivance with foreign partners have
stolen millions of dollars and accepted huge bribes.”
Many Ghanaians are baffled by the former President’s statement.
A court establishes that NDC Ministers in his government took
bribes under his stewardship and his response is to call for the
prosecution of former NPP Ministers? What happened to charity
beginning at home? What have the findings in the London court
got to do with the prosecution of NPP officials? The former
President would have been on point if he had apologized to
Ghanaians for what happened on his watch and called for the
dismissal and prosecution of the officials of his government who
were named in the scandal.
The culpability of the former NPP government lies in why they
failed to pursue allegations of malfeasance in the former NDC
administration more aggressively.
This, of course, is not the first time foreign courts have
revealed the existence of corruption in the former NDC
government. In 2008, a Norwegian court revealed that officials
of SCANCEM, the international owners of local cement producer
GHACEM, had paid bribes to Ghanaian government officials
including the former President and his wife. In response, the
former President issued through his lawyers, a tepid statement
denying his involvement.
The enduring lesson from President Rawlings’ career is that
moral outrage coupled with the occasional execution of people
tried extra-judicially can never eliminate corruption.
The reactions from other quarters have been predictable. The NDC
“amen corner” is loudly proclaiming that Mills and Rawlings
deserve commendation for coming out with their reactions.
NPP members are urging the leadership to make political capital
out of the findings by the British courts and most of the NGO’s
that used to be so loud in condemning corruption have lost their
voices temporarily.
As is typical of our country, there will be noise for a few days
or weeks and we shall move on.
BUT WE MUST NOT MOVE ON!
Corruption is one of the major causes of our under-development
and we must take this opportunity to have a broad and systematic
look at the issue and how we can come to grips with it.
Corruption, which is the use of public office for private gain,
has been with us even before independence. While the PNDC/NDC
era saw corruption reach its highest point, corruption has been
a problem in every government since Independence. Every
government has come into office with a pledge to fight
corruption and been tainted by it.
While we focus on corruption amongst politicians, it is only the
tip of the ice-berg. As the involvement of a then civil servant
in the London court case demonstrates, civil servants are very
often involved in corruption. Indeed, while the involvement of
politicians make headlines, petty corruption, involving the
Police, the Judiciary and the Civil Service retards development
and frustrates the public even more. The relevance of political
corruption is that it deprives politicians of the moral
authority to use their powers in fighting corruption.
We need to accept that no political party can fix this problem.
Indeed, the political parties, together on their own, will never
fix this problem.
In response to this current scandal, we must empanel a
Presidential or Parliamentary Commission to look at corruption
since the advent of the 1992 constitution and recommend
institutional reforms that will reduce it significantly. Its
membership must span the political spectrum and include members
of the clergy and NGO’s so that it will have broad credibility
with the public.
Amongst the changes that should be considered are the following.
First, there must be simple, strict and clear asset declaration
procedures for Politicians, Senior civil servants, Police and
Judicial Service officials, including judges. For the avoidance
of doubt, those who have life tenure must declare their assets
at regular intervals after their appointment. During the second
Presidential debate, virtually all candidates agreed that the
Asset declaration rules on the book were too weak. It is time to
strengthen them. The asset declaration process must be
strengthened by publication of declared assets, and introduction
of the necessary powers for the Serious Fraud Office and or
CHRAJ, on clearly documented suspicion, to investigate covered
officials living above their means. This means that if a
District Chief Executive puts up two mansions within a year of
coming into office, that can be a basis for the investigation of
the person’s assets. This worked in Singapore and it can work in
Ghana.
Second, we must strengthen the people and institutions charged
with fighting corruption. This must be done by increasing the
funding and independence of the Attorney Generals Department,
CHRAJ, the Auditor General’s Department and SFO while making
them more immune to political and social pressures. As long as
those who hold positions in these bodies are at the mercy of
politicians, through appointments or the ability to withhold
funding, they can never function as they were meant to do.
Third, there should be a law that will streamline the
administration of justice in our nation. This law should cap the
number of judges in our Supreme Court, enforce strict remand
provisions and define our appellate process to eliminate the
ambiguities that only serve to enrich court officials at the
expense of a gullible public.
Fourth, we must reform our Police force and remove them from
control by political authorities. These reforms must end the
incestuous relationship between the Police, Criminals and
Politicians that fuel corruption and undermine accountability.
Fifth, we must pass and implement the “Freedom of Information”
bill so that citizens can demand information on and from their
government.
While most of these will help, nothing will be as significant as
regulation the financing of our politics.
A democracy where the cost of running for office is obscenely
high breeds politicians who are corrupted by the necessity to
recoup their investments for office. Earlier this year, even
while President Mills was preaching integrity, candidates for
election to the Council of State or Chief Executives of
District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives were
paying bribes to get elected and we all looked on. Of course,
the same thing happened under the NPP. There must be public
financing of our politics coupled with enhanced accountability
for the process of raising and spending money in our politics at
all levels.
Without that, nothing else will work.
Finally, as the voting public, we must punish corruption at the
polls during elections. As long as people can steal our money
and use it to buy our votes, they will continue to steal.
In places as far away as Israel and America, corrupt politicians
are being indicted and jailed. In Israel for instance, a former
President is on trial and a former Prime Minister is under
indictment for corruption.
We must work towards the day when the administration of
anti-corruption justice will have no partisan coloration. The
chances of a Minister or former Minister being indicted, being
tried and going to jail, must depend, not on which party they
belong to but on the strength of the evidence. And we must end
the practice of convicted politicians being pardoned and ending
up right back in government. It sends a very bad message to
would-be offenders.
We have fought corruption through the force of dubious
personalities for long enough. Let us move to institutional
measures that have worked in other places and stop following the
false messiahs of accountability.
When we get to that stage, we will truly be living up to our
motto “FREEDOM AND JUSTICE”.
Let us move forward, together, to rid our nation of corruption,
so that our nation can develop.
Arthur Kobina Kennedy
Email: arkoke@aol.com
Monday, 28th September, 2008
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