Majority Leader Calls for Code of Conduct

The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Papa Owusu-Ankomah has called for laws to guide the conduct of public and civil servants. He said because ethics are not enforceable legally, most public and civil servants do not feel obliged to serve the nation as expected.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah was speaking at a public lecture organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative in Accra on Wednesday. He called for clear cut guidelines to determine the criteria for selecting people for certain positions. The forum was under the theme: "Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption Measures in Ghana".

He said it should be possible for a law to be enacted to regulate monetary donations made especially by public officers at social functions. He said the politician is usually the target when issues of corruption come up while the civil servant and people in other positions are left out.

He said Parliament would strengthen its committees to play its oversight role more effectively. According to him when it comes to public procurement not less than 20% of the amount spent finds its way into private pockets. He said to mitigate the level of corruption in public administration there is the need to review and strengthen outdated laws such as the Companies Code, bankruptcy laws and the insolvency laws.

He said Parliament should enact a comprehensive, anti-corruption legislation to regulate the conduct of public officials.

He suggested that Parliament should also have a code of conduct precisely because the future of the country would depend on exemplary leadership.

The National Coordinator of the National Institutional Renewal Program (NIRP), Dr. Alex Appiah-Koranteng said investigations by the NIRP indicated about 3000 redundant staff in six state owned enterprises (SOEs). He said the absence of effective means to check corruption has led to the upsurge of the canker in our social life.

Civil and public servants including the security agencies and the general public attended the lecture.