Friday,
December 19, 2014
Folks, news reports about the
over-expenditure of funds by the Presidency may be shocking only for partisan
political purposes. In reality, the happening confirms fears long held by some
of us that despite all the commitments made by Ghanaians to sustain this 4th
Republic, the kind of democracy being practised isn’t fit to be depended on to
solve their existential problems.
This kind of democracy serves the
purposes of the wily politicians who are adept at pulling strings and
manipulation it to personal advantage. That is why I find issues with the
vitriolic reaction of the anti-Mahama elements to the news report.
If our democracy were functional,
why would the Presidency overspend public funds with impunity and still not
apologize to Ghanaians after being exposed as such? Why won’t Parliament take decisive action to punish
those responsible for this errant misconduct?
Flashback: President Mahama and
his team are reported to have exceeded by over a hundred per cent the amount
allocated to the Presidency in the 2014 budget (as of September this year). As
usual, the matter immediately provoked a damning outburst from political
opponents only to quickly vaporize. The Presidency hasn’t even bothered to
explain to Ghanaians why the over-expenditure nor will it show evidence for it.
Anything goes!!
And the Ghanaian tax-payer hasn’t
even bothered to pursue this deviance in any way, apparently because it will
all end up in smoke. There is too much to frustrate anybody wanting to do so.
Where will that person go? The courts? Nowhere but the brickwall. Why, then,
waste time and energy pursuing the matter? Our democracy’s failure!!
The NPP’s Afenyo Markins (MP for
Winneba/Effutu) led the chorus, condemning the President and his team for being
undisciplined. He was ably supported by the entire NPP hub to create the
impression that the over-expenditure confirmed their allegations that the
government was insensitive and unfit to be retained in power at Election 2016.
That chorus has, no doubt, found a legitimate place in the anti-Mahama agenda. Where
will it all end? Nowhere!!
I will be loud in blaming the
Presidency for being reckless but boil everything down to the gross
incompetence of our Parliament as the basis for that aberration. If the
Legislature were acting properly, it would be on top of “business” to know what
was afoot and prevent that aberrant expenditure of public funds. How does
Parliament coordinate its activities with the Executive? On the basis of
hostility just for political expediency or what? Or for personal financial
benefits? What has become of the millions of Cedis given to the MPs as car
loans, anyway? Why isn’t anybody calling for accountability? Why are Ghanaians
so docile?
The truth is that Parliament
itself is liable for the ills afflicting us. In a democracy, the most powerful
link in the chain is not the Executive or the Judiciary but the Legislature,
which brings together the elected representatives of the citizens whose electoral
decisions feed the democracy and determine its fate. In truth, then, the
electorate wield power to make or unmake the democracy; and by willingly
vesting that power in those they choose at elections to represent them, they
validate the Legislature to become the livewire or the democracy.
That is why in every well-crafted
democracy, the Legislature stands up to put the Executive and the Judiciary on
their mettle. After all, it is the Legislature that passes laws for the
President (Executive) to ratify/sign and the Judiciary to interpret for
enforcement by designated agencies (such as the Police Service and analogous institutions).
If the Legislature doesn’t perform well, it creates room for the democracy to
sag. And out Parliament is grossly incompetent, which is why our democracy
cannot help us solve problems.
Our Parliament has turned out to
be the weakest link, which is why it can be bamboozled by the Executive as is
happening in our case. No regard for the principle of checks-and-balances
because Parliament cannot check the Executive and the Judiciary nor can it
balance its own performance. In this sense, then, whatever our democracy stands
for is woefully deceptive, which is why those doing politics can easily
manipulate the system and get away unscathed.
Now, here are some niggles. If
the Presidency really respected the authority of Parliament—to which it
submitted its budget statement for consideration, debate, and scrutiny before
being implemented—why won’t it keep itself within bounds as far as the quantum
approved by Parliament was concerned? Why would the Presidency unilaterally
spend public funds without prior approval from Parliament?
The fact that the
over-expenditure occurred long before its being detected by Parliament speaks
volumes. It tells me that there is a huge disconnect between the Presidency and
the Legislature, which is inimical to our democratic aspirations.
The over-arching question, then,
is: Who has and who should exercise the oversight responsibility over the
allocation and expenditure of public funds? The Presidency or the Legislature?
In civilized democracies, the
onus lies on the Legislature, not the Presidency. We take the current (or is it
recent?) case of the United States, for instance. Congress had to set the
expenditure at 1.1 trillion Dollars to be approved by the Senate to avoid a
government shut down!! The Obama administration laid out its financial
framework but couldn’t go beyond that point without approval from Congress and
the Senate. In this civilized democracy, the Presidency cannot do anything
without the approval of the Legislature.
In extreme cases, the Legislature’s
disapproval of any initiative by the Presidency in terms of public funds will
have dire consequences for the system. Fundamentally, a disapprobation for the
budget presented by the Executive means a government shut-down. It has happened
before and will always happen if there is a disconnect between the Legislature
and the Executive. That is how the principle of checks-and-balances is
practically exercised so none of the three arms of government can do anything
anyhow just because it feels it is what it is. Not so in Ghana.
In our case, although we claim
that we have the three arms of government in place, it is the Presidency that wields
the ultimate power to do as it pleases. Parliament is just a point of
reference. It cannot do what its counterparts in civilized democracies do. An
apology of a link in democracy!!
Folks, we can raise several
issues to prove that our Legislature is a weakling and that it is made up of
people who are not fit to be there at all but for the wiliness that propels
national politics. A careful assessment of the situation leaves me in no doubt
that whatever our democracy is designed to accomplish is elusive for as long as
the Executive controls everything and remains a potentate to be feared or
deferred to. Our woe!!
By the constitutional provisions,
the President has the power to appoint more than 400 public office holders
without any prior consultation with Parliament or Judiciary. He may do so in
consultation with the Council of State in some cases. Who cares about the
Council of State, anyway?
Let’s be plain here to say that
if our democracy should “grow” to help us solve our existential problems, it
must be re-configured and the citizens to become more involved in the process.
Our institutions of state are complicit in the waywardness going on because
those in charge are problems themselves to be solved. There is too much
partisan politics involved. No one seems to put the larger interests of the
country above sectional ones, which is why nothing seems to be working well for
us. Principles have been thrown to the dogs and treachery against political
opponents admired as the panacea to problems.
A democracy that is designed to
move a country forward will have no room for what we see happening in our
country. Those of us assessing issues and making our voices heard wish that the
situation will change for the better; but how can that change come about when
people take entrenched positions and refuse to be guided by principles? Democracy
entails principled behaviour, which we must acknowledge.
Folks, there is a lot more to
say; but let me end it all here to say that our democracy isn’t growing because
it is not being nourished properly. The ground in which to grow it is not
fertile; neither is any effort being made to feed it with what it needs to
grow. Our institutions of state are pathetically incapable of carrying the
burden imposed on them and the citizens seem to be caught in a double bind:
neither knowing how to separate the grain from the chaff nor being prepared to
go by the principles enshrined in a workable democracy.
Truth be told, there is no
difference between the “buga-buga” politics of yesteryears and what the so-called
4th Republican constitutional democracy has portrayed since January
7, 2001. What we have in Ghana as a democracy is just a modified form of
military madness (a “command-and-control, do-before-complain syndrome”, which
empowers the Executive to do as it wishes, damn whatever any critic says. And
because the Executive pulls the purse strings to influence the dynamics of what
goes on in the Legislature and Judiciary, there is much at stake. Who in the
Legislature or the Judiciary can dare bite the finger feeding it? No
accountability to anybody when the Presidency acts!!).
Why is it difficult for
Parliament to pass the Right-to-Information Act? If there were such an act, all
the nonsense going on would be brought to light and used against the perpetrators.
Are we really serious in Ghana?
To me, it is obvious that the
Executive branch still controls everything and all the others defer to it as
would be the case in a military regime when the military leader is the
be-it-all-and-end-it-all. If anybody has anything to the contrary, let him or
her bring it on.
The sad conclusion, then, is that
Ghanaians will continue to be taxed and exhorted to tighten their belt for a
brighter future that will never dawn for as long as the duplicity motivating national
politics continues to numb them into acquiescence. What kind of democracy is
this that will not solve problems?
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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