Corruption In Ghana’s Public Services Is A Big Problem

A Fictionalised But Hundred Percent True Story Showing A Public Service Corruption Experience Of A “Real” Ghanaian. Read This First Of A Series And See How Corruption Proceeds In Ghana; Why The Writer Thinks It Is A Big Problem; And Why We Must Confront It.

By: Otchere Darko

“A Gift For You”: Ampeh arrived at his new station in one of the Regional capitals. As his Akan name suggested, he was a man of “I don’t want this, I don’t want that”. Two examples of his “I don’t want this and that” behaviour were his hatred for “time-wasting” and his non-tolerance for “corruption”. As soon as he completed his National Service and received his permanent appointment and posting, he put the two attributes about him into practice by, firstly, reporting at his new station sooner than later. Secondly, he married during the period of his National Service and started the creation of an “extra mouth” just two months into marriage. He had learnt at the commencement of his National Service that ‘city-lady workers’ used their ‘feminine asset’ to “corrupt” their bosses. He, Ampeh, was not going to allow them to do that to him. So, he had decided to marry a woman he had befriended while he was doing his National Service and who hailed from the same rural community where he did his Service. By marrying early, he had closed the gate of his heart to all other women and made it hard for them to tempt him with their powerful and corrupting ‘tool’. No temptation, no corruption! This was why he married early and this, also, was why he had gone to his new station with his newly married and five-month pregnant wife. “The man who walks with his wife beside him cannot be stolen by another woman,” Ampeh told his friends. When they arrived at the new station, they found that a 3-Bedroom Bungalow that was waiting for him was fully furnished, except that there was no TV and no any other facility for news or entertainment. That was not a bother to him though. He believed that he could buy one on his own when he started receiving his full graduates’ pay. A Bungalow with basic furniture was all he needed, as a new graduate working for the first time on his own. “We don’t immediately need a TV set in this Bungalow,” he told his wife. “No, we don’t.” The heavily pregnant and constantly sleeping wife agreed with her husband. However, someone somewhere did not agree. That someone thought that the administrator of a big place, like where Ampeh had been posted to, should have a TV set in his Bungalow as part of the furnishing.

Ampeh left home early for office the first Monday after the weekend they arrived. As already said, he hated “time-wasting” and that applied to going to work. At about 8.00 am, the phone in his office rang. It was the first call since he had been there that morning. Who knew he was in the office that early? Ampeh concluded that it must be his wife ringing him from their Bungalow. He picked the phone; and, truly, it was her. “A certain man here has ‘a TV set for you’ and wants to speak to you about it,” his wife told him. There was a brief moment. Then, a tense voice followed. “Good morning, Chief”, the man in his Bungalow began. “My friends call me ‘Uncle John’. I heard that you came at the weekend. I also heard that the Ministry did not put any TV set in your Bungalow. That was very bad. So, I decided to come and fix one for you. You need to know what is going on in the world, don’t you? Tomorrow morning, I will come to the office and welcome you officially. I know you will be busy on your first day. So, I am not coming there today. See you tomorrow, Chief.”

The phone was off, and that was it. In the afternoon, when Ampeh went home for lunch-break he saw a brand new 28-inch TV standing on its stand and facing their settee. The next day, ‘Uncle John’ came to his office, as promised, and introduced himself. “Your immediate predecessor who has been transferred to your National Head Office in Accra was my best friend,” ‘Uncle John’ had said, after welcoming the man he called “Chief”. “So, I decided to come and fix one to help my friend’s replacement, just as I would help him if he was here and faced the same need.” Ampeh pondered in his office after ‘Uncle John’ had left. He and his wife had thought that ‘Uncle John’ was a TV dealer who was trying to sell the set to them on “pay-as-you-go” basis. Many sellers did that to promote and expand their business. So, the couple did not think the TV set was going to be a gift, and from a man they never knew before. But on that Tuesday he knew that the TV was a gift. ‘Green’, like an uncut equatorial forest and ‘innocent’, like a child, Ampeh was only surprised, but not worried.

*Months later on, Ampeh got to know that ‘Uncle John’ was a repairer of air-conditioners and that he had a periodically fixed and renewable contract to repair, service and maintain all air-conditioners at his establishment under a contract awarded to him by the Regional Headquarters of the Ministry Ampeh worked for. He learnt further that the contract was originally signed more than seven years before his arrival. Also, when he assumed responsibility at his new office, the unexpired period remaining before the contract became due for further renewal was two years. He learnt also that all the air conditioners under the contract were fitted inside the ceilings of all offices in the whole establishment. The servicing agreement said ‘Uncle John’ had to service all air-conditioners once every year. “When it comes to what happens inside the whole of a rat, it is only the rat that can tell,” a Ghanaian proverb says. As a corollary, only a repairer knows the ‘servicing’ he does inside a ceiling that is obscured from people’s eyes. Two months before the contract was due for renewal and following a tipoff, Ampeh concluded from a secret investigation he conducted that ‘Uncle John’ never did any actual servicing. He merely submitted “fake invoices” that said he had fully serviced all the air conditioners [after always climbing into some of the ceilings and creating the impression that he was servicing them]. *Was this the reason why ‘Uncle John’ gave the TV gift? And what could Ampeh have done when ‘Uncle John’ brought the set he and his wife did not have, and needed? What would “YOU” have done with this gift, and at the time it was given? Readers, think about it!

Source: Otchere Darko; [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today.]