Thursday,
October 16, 2014
My
good friends, I want to stick my neck out to say that Ghana can never be (re)built with
the kind of “democracy” in place that is not being used to solve problems but
to reinforce the inadequacies characterizing governance in Ghana or those
making this 4th Republic a laughing stock.
Why am I being so brazen? Simple.
There is too much theft of public funds without any prompt action being taken
to punish the culprits or to institutionalize preventive mechanisms, which
angers the citizens. Make no mistake. Public funds are the livewire of
democracy; and when public funds are so easily stolen, the democracy itself is
endangered.
In Ghana, theft of public funds
is second nature to those with access to the national coffers and their
dependants motivating their waywardness. So, appointment to high public office
is a green light to theft of public funds; and whoever succeeds is lionized. It
is inescapable. What a sick country to live in!
News
reports that Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, former Executive Director of the National
Service Scheme, (NSS) has been remanded into Police custody by an Accra Circuit
Court are gripping. He has been charged with stealing 86.9 million Ghana cedis,
belonging to the government of Ghana, and pleaded not guilty. (See: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=330599).
This
case is more than disturbing because it adds to many others that really hurt
the ordinary Ghanaian tax payer—the poor farmers, fishermen, public sector
workers, and just anybody (including poor hawkers) who pays tax or produces
goods and services that yield the revenue to feed the national coffers. And
more disconsolating is the fact that institutions like the NSS that are
supported by the national coffers hardly produce anything to feed the coffers.
So, they exist just because those whose sweat, blood, and toil feed the
national coffers continue to play their part toward nation-building. The wolves
in such institutions are heartless thieves who should be severely punished but
are let off the hook just because our system is damn useless!!
If
you doubt it, just plot all the cases that have entered the labyrinth of the
judiciary and gathered dust over the years. Saddening!!
Folks,
the spate of corruption or plain stealing of public funds and state property is
telling; it is disturbing and sickening; and it speaks volumes about the
wickedness of those perpetrating it. And I have in mind public office holders
(be they politicians or technocrats—or just anybody assigned responsibilities
to help solve problems but who ends up creating loopholes to exploit or digging
deep into existing ones for personal gains).
The
history of Ghana is replete with such sordid occurrences. In those days,
Commissions of Inquiry were set up to unravel the extent of the thievery so the
culprits could be exposed and punished.
Jerry
Rawlings took matters to the highest level when his June 4 Revolution resorted
to the physical elimination of culprits (firing squad) or imprisonment for
donkey years. Many others faced what was then called "unprecedented
revolutionary action" just because Rawlings sought to rid the country of corruption.
Regardless
of whatever happened. Corruption thrived, even under Rawlings; and it has
calcified to date. Whatever happened under Kufuor is still glaring; but what we
have seen under President Mahama is frightening, not because it is new but
because of the spate (the frequency at which it occurs and the indiscriminate
nature).
Is
it because the loopholes have widened or that the mechanisms for preventing
such malpractices are inefficacious—or simply not available? Or is it because
those busily devising means to steal public funds are colluding with those
charged with preventing such a theft? Or simply because the system has broken
down?
Over
the past few years, the brazen theft of public funds has been exposed in
several schemes involving state institutions and personalities heading them. Is
it the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) itself? The CHRAJ? Or the
institutions established by President Mahama in pursuit of the "Better
Ghana" Agenda? And I have in mind anything connected with the Savannah
Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and all that it has done concerning
GYEEDA, SUBAH, and any entity yet to be exposed? Sickening to the core!!
Or
the most obnoxious of all schemes for looting the public coffers, which is the
payment of judgement debts? Or the despicable one at the National Service
Secretariat? My, oh, my; what has become of Ghanaians placed in positions of
trust?
I
am particularly alarmed that these people heading the institutions are becoming
the architects of schemes for the plain theft of public funds. Almost every
institution of state is compromised. Oh, Ghana!!
Of
particular concern to me is the case of the National Service Scheme, clearly
because of the impunity with which the perpetrators went about doing things.
Creating a ghost list and paying themselves through such a list is the worst to
have happened in such an institution, especially if one considers the noble
objectives that the NSS was established to achieve and if one considers the
trying circumstances under which national service personnel live.
Is
it because those siphoning public funds through such schemes are irredeemably
wicked or treacherous or because they know how to outwit the system? And what
measure has been put in place by the governments that we've had so far to
counteract any theft of the sort that is now alarming us all? Who has any
supervisory function over the NSS? And why should the head of the NSS be left
to do things as he wishes? And those under him too to vest themselves with the
power to do things to the detriment of the national coffers?
What
is the proactive role of the Auditor-General or the Accountant-General's
Department? Or are these institutions in place to do things only after the
fact? To audit books/records only after the theft has been successfully
effected and the culprits gone into thin air?
Folks,
you see, the way we do things in our part of the world cannot make our
democracy grow. No democracy can grow without mechanisms for plugging
loopholes, especially where public funds are concerned. We must not continue to
deceive ourselves that our democracy is durable just because it continues to
facilitate the quadrennial electoral ritual of balloting to choose crops of
political toads to rule the country. Unfortunately, that's what we have been
nursing all these two decades. How narrow-minded can we be?
Truth
be told, we must know that democracy is expensive; and for the citizens to
continue supporting it, they must be assured that their sweat, toil and blood
(public funds) aren't abused. The citizens cannot forever remain passive or
docile. When they are pushed to the wall, they will be resilient, spring back,
and hurt the system, which will topple the democracy. As of now, our democracy
is an albatross; it is "moribund" and can be toppled at the poke of a
finger, especially when the citizens continue to live in narrow circumstances
while those with access to public funds live in disgusting opulence.
I
am more than apprehensive at this stage that this kind of democracy endangers
the future for the citizens. It is particularly disturbing because the
institutions of state that should be propping up the democracy are engulfed in
filth and turn out to be undercutting the democracy instead.
There
is no silver lining on the horizon. Let's be blunt to say that until the
government takes the first step to clean the stables, the situation will
deteriorate. The problems are systemic, meaning that not until the stables are
cleansed, any new government that emerges will not be able to make any difference.
I am particularly unhappy that despite the spate of malfeasance, the government
isn't seriously retooling the institutions of state to make them function
effectively/efficiently for our democracy to be used to solve problems.
On
this score, apprehensions abound that the country cannot be moved out of the
woods anytime soon. And I cannot even imagine what a new government (assuming
that the NPP gets the mandate at Election 2016) can do. It's all about taking
drastic action to plug all existing loopholes being exploited and to create
mechanisms for early detection of malfeasance and the stiff punishment of
culprits. Not until such measures are taken and enforced to the letter and
spirit, nothing can change for the better; and Ghanaians will be wasting
resources sustaining this kind of albatross called democracy.
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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