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Is politics in Ghana a game of amassing wealth?
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh
The turn of events which characterised the Ghanaian political
landscape really give credence to the fact that most people in
Ghana go into politics just to amass wealth at the expense of
the majority poor.
The majority of politicians go into politics or public office
with the sole aim of looting and amassing state funds. This
situation is the contributory factor of the current economic
doldrums on the masses of Ghanaians.
Apart from the stealing of state resources by avaricious and
greedy public office holders, they have also managed to design
the distributive systems in such a manner that allow them to
take the lion share of the national cake leaving behind a small
portion to be shared among the poor majority who ironically
contribute more to the national kitty.
It is sad to know that a civil servant who has worked all
his/her life for 30years serving the nation does not go home
with an ex-gratia of not more than GH¢5,000 whiles, a politician
having served the nation for four years as a Member of
Parliament (MP) or a Minister of State, DCE, MCE takes home over
GH¢82,000 as a reward in addition to the many allowances. This
is highly incredible and seer madness in a HIPC country likes
Ghana to continue to feeding the politics at the expense of the
poor.
It is therefore no surprising that many people in the country
have become very aggressive to use crook or foul means to go
into politics because it is now a lucrative vocation.
Furthermore, during the debate of the Chinery-Hesse Committee
Report, which slapped heavy sums of money on the Ex-President,
J.A Kufour and other ex public office holders, no single
MP walked out to protest against such inhumane decision of
paying over GH¢82,000 as an ex-gratia to an MP.
This is against the backdrop when hundreds of Ghanaians are
dying as result of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and diseases,
when the state has difficulty in paying the personnel engaged
under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and
capitation grant for schools was also hard to pay.
Perhaps most of the MPs do not know that there are working
people in this country who earn between GH¢40 and GH¢100 as
their monthly salary and without allowance(s). These groups of
people are in the majority, Bernard Mornah, a leading member of
the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a pressure group in Ghana
has disclosed in Accra, recently.
According to him, the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS)
conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service shows that 18.2% of
the total population (22million) people live an annual pay of GH¢285.
Expressed in simple arithmetric terms, about 4,004,000 Ghanaians
receive a monthly salary of GH¢23.75.
“It seems that the Ghanaian politicians/public office holders do
hold erroneous views that state resources or property such as
cars, furnished bungalows, among others once given them to
execute their official duties automatically become their bona
fide property when leaving office.
If, in this era of zero tolerance for corruption there are still
no clear policies and procedures to let public office holders
know what is due them to avoid massive grapping and looting of
state property as we have all witnessed in recent times, then
the nation has a long way to go in her bid to fight corruption”,
Mr. Mornah added.
It is worrying to hear comments suggesting that the ruling
government should not waste precious time in retrieving state
property from the previous government officials but should
rather concentrate its productive energies in salvaging the
current economic crisis confronting the country.
Simple analysis and reasoning should tell any rational human
being that part of the economic crisis faced the nation is as a
result of the malicious and frequent acquisition of state
property by the public officials or government appointees.
This is because the government will have to spend part of its
scarce resources meant for other developmental projects on the
same property needed to enable new administration officials
discharge their functions but have been stolen by other greedy
people, he observed.
“Sometimes, one is tempted to pose these questions: will the rot
of ex-government officials be exposed if the same ruling party
gets another node after four years of constitutional rule? Will
it not be expedient and as a matter of principle for Ghanaians
to vote out any ruling party after four years of rule so that
the ills and rots committed by ex-public officials can be
brought to day light and the culprits made to face the fullest
rigours of the law? But in any case do we have to wait for four
years before demanding probity and accountability from public
office holders when barely four months after assuming office,
there are many allegations of abuse of power and corrupt
practices leveled against some public office holders. A case in
point, the former minister of sports Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka
Mubarak.
Then simple logic should tell any one what would have happened
in terms of reckless spending after four years of service by
this Minister? For all we may know, there are many public
officials who are indulged in similar practices and they should
take a cue from the case of the embattled former sports
Minister”, Mr. Charles Sam, a media practitioner asked.
The Auditor's General reports contain a list of public officials
who have no human conscience are insensitive to the use of tax
payer's money. For instance, in 2004, financial irregularities
amounted to 269.91 billion cedis ($27 million ) as compared with
2003 figure of 243.44 billion cedis ($24 million ), cash
irregularities escalated 17.53 billion cedis ($18 million ) in
2003 to 34.9 billion cedis ($35 million ), representing an
increase of 17.43 billion cedis or 99.4 % in 2004.
Furthermore, unaquitted payments constituted 22.83 billion cedis
or 65.1% because of rampant disbursement without receipts and
other requisite documentations to authenticate the transactions.
Financial irregularities in 2005 and 2006 amounted to 257.40
billion ($26 million) and 279.77 billion cedis ($28 million)
respectively.
These serious violations were caused by laxity in expenditure
control and flagrant disregard of financial regulations by the
various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The Executive Secretary of Ghana Transparency Initiative, Mr.
Vitus Azeem intimated that “it appears that we as a people have
developed a colossal corruptive consciousness that allows or
liberates us to defraud government property. Thus we think that
certain schedules call on us to cheat and that is normal. We can
never grow as a country with this attitude unless we have a
change of mindset and see government property as our bona fide
property that needs to be properly protected by us”.
Fighting corruption does not necessarily depend on the number of
legislative instruments enacted in the constitution without
enforcement. What was the work of the Office of Accountability
when everything was shredded in secrecy running counter to the
principle of transparency and accountability? The poor tax
payer's money spent on this Office had gone down the drain, he
indicated.
The Public Office Holders Act (Asset Declaration Law) should be
enforced by calling on ex-government officials or appointees to
declare their assets and to explain any acquisition of assets
where there are suspicious about its genuineness.
Indeed, any serious government committed to fighting corruption
will first inverst into strengthening and resourcing
accountability mechanisms and anti-corruption institutions such
as Internal Audit Units in the MDAs, the Auditor General's
Department, Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Commission on Human
Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) and parliament to be able to discharge
their legitimate functions effectively and efficiently, Mr.
Azeem appealed.
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh is a contributor/writer for Ghanadot
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