Thursday,
March 13, 2014
My good friends, there is enough
reason to say that any talk of fighting corruption in Ghana annoys me more than
giving me hope that the vice will ever be successfully fought to improve
governance.
Good
citizenship is not achieved through appeals to conscience but through
verifiable decent conduct as far as the handling of national affairs is
concerned.
If you are one of those bothering
yourself about corruption in Ghana and why it can’t be tackled despite official
assurances, you needn’t do so anymore. Corruption cannot be stemmed. Lip
service here, lip service there, lip service everywhere cannot tackle it. But
that is the most preferred strategy: lip service and more lip service!! The
chorus is set to be sung.
Let somebody tell me where
exactly there is any provision in our legal code that specifically defines
corruption for what it is and prescribes requisite punishment for it. Then, let
somebody tell me whether there have not been infringements of that injunction
and what has specifically been done to prove that there is a legal code on
corruption that binds or bites culprits.
We are not talking about criminal
dissipation of public funds which, in our time, translates into everything
rolled into one as the judgement debt payments! We are talking about bribery
and corruption going on day and night in public service. Call it by its more
harmless euphemism—palm greasing—and you will be unpacking it in its subtlety.
“Wetting the ground” is its
appropriate characterization in the case of those seeking opportunities to do
business with government. Be it at the Ministries, Agencies, or Departments,
the one looking for the opportunity has to “wet the ground” before something
happens. It is beyond question.
Don’t even talk about the poor
retired workers looking for their pension payments. If they don’t wet the
ground, their files will continue to elude them till death do them pass.
Ordinary workers at the
Ministries have sharpened their skills at getting desperate callers to wet the
ground before any service is rendered. Along the line up the ladder in that
hierarchical order, the ground wetting magnifies till it reaches the top to be
blown out of all reasonable proportions.
It is endemic in the public
sector in Ghana. Nobody can tell me otherwise.
Believe
it or not, the searchlight is now on Ghana’s Parliament. Former Majority and
Minority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has opened the can of
worms, alleging that some MPs take bribes in the performance of their duties.
He said so at a two-day seminar in Koforidua for representatives of 40
non-governmental organizations.
His
allegation has rocked the boat and the immediate vitriolic reaction from his
colleague MPs suggests that they are peeved instead of supporting him to clean
their image. And Bagbin is no new face when it comes to controversies.
Bagbin
says he is ready to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament or the
Leadership of the House to defend his allegation. He says he will be
ready to provide evidence to the committee or the leadership for their perusal.
He says although he only relied on circumstantial and anecdotal evidence to
make his claim, he nonetheless believes the phenomenon exists and must be
talked about.
And
Bagbin is being supported by a former MP for Chereponi (Samuel Jabanyite) who
has strongly alleged too that all MPs are given money by institutions and
organizations that seek to re-shape their minds toward getting them to support
amendments of laws in Parliament.
He
described as “charitable” Bagbin’s allegations that some MPs take bribes.
The situation could be worse, which is why no one should attempt sweeping
Bagbin’s allegation under the rug or intimidating him into recanting.
“Within
the corridors of Parliament and amongst all the 275 Members of Parliament, yes,
it is true, that MPs take money aside from their official sources from such
programmes so there’s no MP who can say he’s never taken such money unless
maybe the MP has never been a member of any Committee and there’s no MP who can
tell me he doesn’t belong to one or two or three Committees and so to me,
Honourable Bagbin was more charitable in his presentation when he said some MPs
take money.
“Indeed
it is all MPs who take money but the question is ‘what bribery, what is the
rationale behind those sponsoring or those creating the opportunity of wanting
to meet the MPs to understand the situation and argue for them?’ Is the food an
inducement? Is the transport an inducement? Is the accommodation an inducement
for you to take a decision which you would have otherwise not taken?” (Jabanyite’s
views).
That
is where we are now. Who will really stand up to lead the fight against
corruption and ensure that he or she is neither already corrupt nor can be
corrupted in the process of fighting corruption?
Politically
motivated civil society groups doing anti-NDC politics and hiding behind the
smokescreen of their “civil society” garb are long on accusing the government
of corruption but short in offering any assistance to solve the problem.
Take, for instance,
what the West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP) is reported to have
revealed in its National Human Security Early Warning report released on
Tuesday, courtesy, Isaac Banor, National Network Coordinator for WANEP:
“Ghana faces a future of violent demonstrations and general
political instability if government fails to deal with the worsening economic
conditions and public discontent over corruption.” A statement that will be incomplete
without reference to endemic corruption under an NDC administration. But what
solution has WANEP given to tackle it? None!!
Sadly,
our Ghanaian situation runs counter to what is happening in democracies
designed to improve governance. Here is just one example:
The former governor
of Virginia and his wife have been charged with illegally accepting lavish
gifts from a businessman while he was in office. Bob
McDonnell, a Republican who left office this month, and his wife Maureen face
14 counts of accepting items valued at $135,000 (£81,955) in total.
Prosecutors say they accepted the gifts from a
businessman who sought political favours. The couple have denied wrongdoing. If
convicted, they face decades in prison and fines in excess of $1m.
Against
this background, I welcome Bagbin’s allegations and the rationale behind them,
as he put it: “We don't have to run away from problems or challenges. We need
find lasting solutions to them. That is what policy is about and as you get
feedback you review it to improve. If we keep running away from challenge then
they will keep haunting us," Bagbin said.
He
said as a country, Ghana would have to confront the issue and find lasting
solutions to it by putting in place policies.
I
support him wholeheartedly and wish that the authorities will take advantage of
his audacity to initiate appropriate measures to solve the problem. But who
will bell the cat? There is ample reason to be pessimistic that anything
concrete at all can be done.
We
are already being given an inkling to know what lies ahead. Instead of hailing
Bagbin, his colleague MPs are jumping on him, insisting that he be hauled
before Parliament to prove his allegations or face the “gallows” that the
so-called Privileges Committee of Parliament has turned itself into.
From
Bagbin’s unwavering stance on his claims, I can foresee some “war-war”
situation in the House if ever he is taken to task. And I expect him to confirm
his allegations to shame his detractors or to help us know the extent to which
palms are being greased and how to stop that act.
Of
course, lobbying is acceptable in politics, but if it is not streamlined or
regulated, it will turn out to be a major liability that unscrupulous elements
always complaining about meager salaries will take undue advantage of to fatten
themselves.
The
painful aspect to consider, though, is that these 275 MPs aren’t even performing
their duties to warrant their being “bribed” to consider laws in favour of
those bribing them. This crop of MPs is made up of much deadwood, and one
wonders why anybody or institution will give any of them money to influence
deliberations in the House.
You
see, when immorality dominates national politics, this kind of misplaced
largesse is the outcome. The MPs have to come out clean so we can help them
redeem themselves and put things right for good governance.
Any
attempt to intimidate Bagbin will backfire with unpleasant repercussions for
them. How can we ever be proud of such a Parliament?
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.
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