CHRAJ, WC exposés: ‘Ghana rotten to the bone’ – Law Prof

A professor of constitutional law, H Kwasi Prempeh, has said the revelations of graft and profligacy emerging from the presidential commission probing Ghana’s world cup fiasco, as well as the rent debacle involving the boss of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), are indicative of how “rotten” the country has become.

CHRAJ boss Lauretta Lamptey, according to state-owned Daily Graphic, spent, within 37 months – from July 2011 when she was appointed to July 2014 when her rent at the AU Village expired – US$203,500 on rent and utilities, at the expense of the State’s kitty.

She is currently lodging at a hotel and paying the Cedi equivalent of $456.25 per day, in the interim, as her official residence, which was inhabited by her predecessor, Emile Short, undergoes renovation at a cost of Ghc182, 000.

With the world cup issue, it recently emerged at the hearing of the presidential commission probing Ghana’s participation in the football showpiece that the budgetary allocation for food for fans ferried to Brazil to cheer the national team on, was bloated.

Using these revelations as a basis for his assertions, the Seton Hall Law School Professor and former Director of Legal Policy and Governance at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, a nongovernmental policy forum and research institute, wrote: “Ghana is ROTTEN to the bone!”

He nonetheless said the rot does not come to him as a surprise. “I don't know why people seem surprised or disappointed by either the CHRAJ or the World Cup Commission revelations. I am not. In fact, I never am. How new is any of this, really? The foibles and follies and scandals of Ghana's elite and public officeholders can surprise only those who haven't been paying attention or who see these matters in "personalistic" or moralistic terms," Prof Prempeh said.

“What more do you need to see or know to appreciate this inescapable fact," he asked, adding: “Yes, there are a lot of amoral people in our public life. But it is the rottenness of the system that attracts their kind – and repels their opposites! The problem is deeply entrenched and systemic and often corrupts and "amoralises" even the good ones who venture into public office."

In Prempeh’s view, “Episodic expressions of moral outrage will change nothing."

He proposes a “structural change” as the starting point of the fight against corruption “because it is both foundational and easier to tackle than most of the other problems--is an overhaul of our highly permissive, business-as-usual constitution. It is not in and of itself the "cause" of our problems; no constitution necessarily is. But its permissiveness enables, aids and abets many of these problems and often stands in the way of solving them."