During the inaugural of President Mahama on 7th January, the person who got the most applause, besides the President was coup-maker and Burkinabe leader Traore.
To discerning Ghanaians, despite the surface euphoria, Comrade Traore’s reception should have rung alarm bells. Despite voting for decisive change every 8 years, Ghanaians seem to get more of the same. Even before his inauguration, President Mahama acknowledged the importance of corruption by naming ORAL.
The very naming of ORAL and its overwhelming public reception underlined our lack of confidence in the myriad anti-corruption agencies that litter our political landscape. Why does corruption keep growing despite the existence of Attorney-General, National Investigations Bureau, Serious Fraud Office, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and now Office of Special Prosecutor?
Why do Anas and Manasseh Azure uncover more fraud than many of our funded anti-corruption bodies? Corruption, which is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, has bedeviled our republic since its founding– maybe before its founding since Nkrumah’s government almost collapsed before independence, leading to Ohene Djan’s imprisonment. We have analyzed it– as the Justice Anin Commission did in 1970. Leaders have sermonised on it and condemned it–from Nkrumah’s dawn broadcasts to Busia’s lamentations to Rawlings’ accountability and probity booms.
Leaders have confessed to it as Kufuor did in his, “they are bringing the money ‘waa-waa’” comment. We have sacrificed some scapegoats– as in the execution of the Generals in 1979, and before then, in the resignation of General Ankrah for the Nzeribe bribe. While the legal bonafides of ORAL has been vouched for by the likes of Prof. Asare, it won’t be enough. It won’t attain much.
Alone, ORAL is a strategic band-aid on the large, deep and odious corruption wound applied by the well-intentioned President Mahama. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament alone has more evidence of corruption in its archives for any of the last 10 years than ORAL can collect in a year.
The records of judgment debts negotiated without litigation under NADAA (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) will dwarf anything ORAL would collect if it worked for 10 years. The Ghana Governance and Corruption Survey of 2000 sponsored by the World Bank showed how serious the problem is. 3 out of every 4 Ghanaians and 4 out of every 5 public officials saw corruption as a major problem.
Ghanaians reported paying about 10% of their income as bribes. 44% of firms admitted to paying bribes to officials. The public identified MTTU, CEPS, the Police and Immigration as the most corrupt. Firms put CEPS first in the ranks of corruption.
Corruption is what happened at Public Procurement Authority. It is why our banking collapsed. It is why GRA cannot collect enough revenue. It is why GALAMSEY goes on despite our outrage. It is why government officials are selling lands to themselves at donkomi prices at Cantonments and other places. Now, if the citadels of corruption are the MTTU, CEPS and the Police etc, how can we claim to be tackling corruption without tackling these institutions? What reforms are being undertaken to rid the Police of corruption?
Just last week, the widow of Dr. Prempeh, a deceased teacher at the Medical school, complained about being forced out of her home by Land Guards. For how many years have we been bedeviled by Land Guards? Why can’t the Police solve it? President Mills commissioned Anas to unearth corruption at CEPS that had tongues wagging for weeks. And nothing happened.
The same Anas stripped naked some of our Judicial high rollers and showed them taking money, goats and comely maidens in exchange for judgments and nothing happened. Too many of our corruption networks reach into the highest echelons of our society.
Honestly, we cannot destool “Nana Corruption ” without going to his “Ahenfie”. The sad truth, my fellow Ghanaians, is that too often, in our country, ” the thief” and “the watchman” are the same. We must add our political parties and Judiciary to the citadels of corruption. We cannot be against corruption and have our political party nominations bought and sold openly.
We cannot be against corruption and have our Presidency admit to paying MPs money under the table to do Ghana’s work. The sad truth is that we seem to have an understanding between our two major parties that state, ” don’t touch my thieves and I won’t touch yours”.
The fight against corruption will never take off unless there is a Presidency committed to it. Sadly, even honest Presidents can preside ignorantly over corrupt governments– as Nkrumah, Limann and Mills did. Mr. President, if you desire to enter history as the anti-corruption President of the 4th Republic, consider the following actions:
1: Open the books on Judgment Debts for us to know who authorized these debts and to whom they were paid and the amounts paid.
2: Ask for and publish the updated assets of all those who just left government, besides their original asset forms, besides that of your appointees.
3: Order the Installation of cameras at every Police barrier and every CEPS office with periodic review by media and NGOs.
4: Make our PPA processes accessible to the media and public.
5: Establish a Whistle-blower system with rewards for members of the public who report hidden assets for a reward. Sometimes, these proceeds of corruption are in plain sight. When a man earns 200,000 in salary over 2 years and puts up a mansion worth a million cedis, he is corrupt until proven otherwise.
6: Sack Ministers against who the Public Accounts Committee reports missing funds unless they can provide satisfactory explanations in 30 days.
7: Send legislation to Parliament that will make the sale of public lands transparent. Parliament too has a role.
Mr. Speaker, hold hearings on our banking clean-up. Why did banks that could have been rescued for 6 billion or so get sucked into a 22 billion Ghana cedi clean-up? Who was responsible for the banking crisis and what accountability did they face?
Require the Bank of Ghana Governor to report regularly in public to Pariament. Bar MPs from serving on public boards because it is a conflict of interest and stop MPs from taking envelopes. A respected Parliament must police itself.
Finally, the public can help. Let’s stop celebrating charlatans and honour integrity. Let churches stop making thieves harvest Chairpersons and honour honorable citizens even if they are poor.
Corruption will kill Ghana if we don’t kill it.
God bless Ghana.