Ghana Corruption Linkages" Fairness, Control and FOIB

THE GHANA CORRUPTION LINKAGES: FAIRNESS, CONTROL, AND THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL (FOIB)

What a great week (9-15 Sep) it’s been for governmental accountability and honesty for Ghana. Notwithstanding all the noise about a so-called requirement for Bible-thumping “God-fearing leaders” for Ghana without which Ghana is doomed to fail, there were strong beacons of hope, honesty, and accountability shining through for all to see. But not before there was the other noises from the “Mugabe Must Be Invited - Ghana Gov't” report. This call came from Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Akwasi Osei Adjei, in a talk about “fairness,” apparently. Goodness, fairness? If fairness is all one can cite for Mugabe to go to Lisbon, Mugabe might as well stay in Harare and give some fairness to the people in Zimbabwe. Then let the Ghana focus and attention remain on the people of Ghana, making sure all Ghanaians, in all of Ghana’s regions, schools, and communities, are fairly treated. That would be fairness, indeed!!

But not so fast. Before we could even begin again, there was this news flash: “Kufuor Unhappy with Builsa Traditional Council.” What? It cannot be true!

Read for yourself if you missed that:

“…Sept 14, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor has expressed displeasure at the failure by elders of the Builsa Traditional Council to formally inform him of the death of the Paramount Chief of the Traditional Area, Naab Ayieta Azantilow…(the President)…expected the elders to show some respect to the presidency…”

Wow!! Must we/can we say that President John Agyekum Kufuor is himself a “victim” of the Lack of Access to Information, a “victim” of information withheld? Interesting, really, if you ask Prof Lungu!! The reader will probably agree that this goes directly to our point that Ghana needs a Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB) without further delay. Ghana needs a FOIB that applies to all Ghanaian agencies and institutions, including the Chieftaincy institution.

ITEM: Whereas the Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB) is recognized as a necessity for all of Ghana, Prof Lungu hereby declares President John Agyekum Kufuor the “FIRST OFFICIAL “VICTIM” of the Ghana FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL” on account of the “Builsa Traditional Council Affair” and given that the FOIB is still being held hostage by the administration. Due to the high importance of this item and connections to Ghana officialdom as shown, it is reasonable to suppose that the Ghana FOIB should/will be passed no later than 25 December, 2007.

FOIB PULLED FROM GHANA PARLIAMENT WEBSITE

The week started with the publication of Part I of Prof Lungu’s critique of the Ghana FOIB (Right to Information Bill) (Ghanaweb, 10 Sep 07)). But no sooner was the piece published than the 2003 draft bill stored on the Parliament of Ghana’s website was pulled from that website. That “pull” actually included the entire web page, which is odd, if only because that is the kind of government reaction that informs innuendos and sustains rumors. The point is there was not one explanation, not one statement as to when the draft bill or revisions thereof would be back on that website. Not even a “This Page Under Re-Construction.”

For the reader, here is the ghost web page link of the Ghana FOIB web page, straight from the Parliament of Ghana: http://www.parliament.gh/docs/uploads/Right%20to%20Information%20Bill.pdf).

Try it and ask yourself why! Try it and ask when the bill will be posted back so all can read, be informed, and can have an opportunity to provide alternative ways for addressing and improving this crucial goal for Ghana, if so inclined. Prof Lungu believes that many people more knowledgeable about this type of public policy are inclined to do so. It is only fair the government of Ghana gives all a chance to contribute.

For Ghana in particular, the FOIB is the people’s bill!! And so, this week has been a remarkable one for the Accountable Government for Ghana project, nonetheless. All on Ghanaweb interested in improving transparency in government operations have “seen” several responsible people come forth with advice, even challenges, to the Government of Ghana to come clean of corruption and begin to weed that canker from the fabric of Ghanaian society, starting with the body politic, even.

WHISTLE BLOWER & POWER OF BUREAUCRATS

This week, there was a report titled, “Audit Service staff challenged to expose corrupt officials.” This call, from Mr. Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional Minister, comes from a knowledgeable and respectable source, we may all agree. Naturally as fair is fair, we are with Mr. Owusu-Ansah, if he will help further. The challenge to the staff of the Ghana Audit Service “to be vigilant and expose corrupt public officers without fear or favour” is only practical where there is ample protection for the public employee with information on corruption. Protection for public employees would include immediate fine-tuning of the Ghana Whistle-Blower law so that persons coming forward (1) are assisted and protected to the maximum extent and (2) that CHRAJ does not turn into a chameleon at the influence and direction of the Ghana Attorney General, or any other politician or high level government official, for that matter.

We thank Mr. Owusu-Ansah for throwing light on the important issues of accountability and full, timely, complete, and accurate auditing of Ghana’s “books.” However, we would ask Mr. Owusu-Ansah and others in the government to not stop here, even with expedited improvements to the Ghana Whistle-Blower law. All in the government, including the Opposition, must inquire why the Ghana FOIB is still being held hostage and make their findings known to the people. In fact, in this matter, one can characterize the position of the Opposition as unknown, and dubious at best. We ask all in the government to assist the government, take leadership of this important item, even, so Ghana gets a strong FOIB no later than December 2007. Fairness, governmental responsibility, and the Ghana development agenda require swift passage of the FOIB. The people of Ghana deserve better than they are getting for all the national resources, for all the hard work, and for all the blessings of history and location.

CALL TO ENFORCE ASSET DECLARATION LAWS

The other good news was a report titled “State Attorney asks public officials to declare assets,’ reported by GNA. This slightly misleading title featured a call from Mr. Anthony Rexford Wiredu, State Attorney, Central region, and Rt. Rev. Quansah, Bishop, Cape Coast Diocese of the Methodist Church for leadership in the fight against corruption.

We are with Mr. Wiredu in the request for “all public officials to declare their assets as required by law.” Clearly, even a Ghana elementary school student will tell you that until these officials declare their assets they are law breakers themselves, if all you tell the student is that (1) Asset Declaration is a Constitutional requirement, and (2) Ghana has a serious problem with corruption.

But Asset Declaration should not stop with merely declaring ones assets and giving the list to the ethically-challenged Ghana Auditor General who then files the list in an obscure ledger in a safe, then throws away the key. Asset declaration ought not to be a secret affair, otherwise there is no purpose for the entire effort. It is not nearly enough to declare assets and give the list to the Auditor General (and the Auditor General, to the President). These lists should be published as soon as they are available according to law, so anyone can put “2 and 2” together to assist with accuracy and completeness, and thus help promote real transparency in government operations.

Prof Lungu has provided a cursory estimate of annual loss by Ghana to corruption, a loss between $195 million to a high $429 million, given annual expenditures and factoring in a corruption factor of up to 10% of annual expenditures. In the same GNA report on asset Declaration (the headline in my humble opinion), the Rt. Rev. Quansah made some comments that begin to put all the linkages together on the corruption circle, and its relationship to the Ghana development agenda. We are with Rt. Rev. Quansah when he says that corruption is breeding poverty and depriving people of their rights to ownership and thus retarding Ghana's development. We are also with the Rt. Rev. Quansah in the implied thesis that the Ghana Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and the Electoral Commission are not sufficiently resourced or independently organized to do the jobs required by the Constitution of Ghana, on their part. Bottom line here is the CHRAJ and the SFO offices must be independent of the Attorney General, the Ministers, and the President and that is as fair as a bright day when the Presidents travels to Canada.

PULL CORRUPTION LIFE-SUPPORT FROM CHEST OF GHANA’S MPs:

This week, there was a piece titled “MPs must wean themselves off the Common Fund - NALAG President.” It was reported that Mr. George Kyei Baffour, President of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) and Ghana’s District Chief Executives (DCEs) had come to the fateful conclusion that Ghana’s MPs are operating in yet another zone of conflict of interest: MPs as development agents and government contract awarders/supervisors.

We agree that there is a conflict of interests with MPs acting as development agents!!

The three-hat Ghana MP as development agent, policy maker, and judge is a FATAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST for Ghana’s development agenda. The MP is a policy maker, simple stupid. The Minister as a development agent, cum Judge, reeks of a system out of order, a system without controls, a system completely controlled the MP, against the Ghana national interest, against all fairness, and against elementary democratic principles. That is too much power for one solitary individual calculated to make all others subservient. That might explain why some would even think about proposing that Ghana's MPs sit in court and actually determine who gets access to information under the Ghana FOIB law. No!! This is not right or fair!!

ITEM: Three-hat Ghana MPs as policy makers, development agents, and judges does not make sense, it smacks of anarchy parading as the rule of law. Fundamentally, it goes against the letter and spirit of "Checks and Balances" for the purposes of accountability and responsiveness to the people in any democracy. With that fatal flaw and conflict, Ghana will remain the personal property of its MPs and other high government officials. Bureaucrats will remain personal servants, peons, even, of the Minister and the Ghana state, from the capital to the district level, and the State will remain the personal property of the Minister. That has to stop. The GNA piece called for weaning off the MPs from the Common Fund. But seriously, “wean off” is a very tame characterization of the requirement at hand. Prof Lungu would suggest “Pull Corruption Live-Support from Chest of Ghana’s MPs.”

OTHER GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY LINKAGES

Here are two more linkages drawn from the quest to promote the Ghana public safety and welfare agenda, and to support swift passage of a strong FOIB.

It is distressing to many that the Ghana Police CID, the Ghana Police Service, itself, and the Ghana Attorney General (AJ) are Missing-in-Action (MIA) in the crusade against corruption and effort to promote transparency in government. Seems to Prof Lungu that the Ghana Police Service, in particular, spends an inordinate amount of time investigating and prosecuting civil offenses between individuals than is warranted given other matters higher in priority. For the Ghana AJ, MIA sums it all for them, again: there is no corruption crusade, see nothing, do nothing, if you care to ask them!!

It would appear that the smart way forward is for the Police and the CID to prioritize their programs and focus more on real crimes against the state, to include mob lynching and other violence against persons, drug dealings, and the biggest one of all, Police and Official Corruption. Weeding out corruption and bribery within the Ghana Police Service should be Job 1 by none other than the Ghana Police Service and the AJ. In that vein, the Ghana AJ ought to be doing more than the zero action, see nothing, do nothing policy we are seeing and reading about.

ITEM: In the face of so many reports and complaints about corruption and influence peddling on Ghana’s roads and public bureaus, it is hard to tell what activity the Ghana Attorney General is involved in for the people, and for the sake of the people. Suffice to say that we can speculate that former New York (NY) Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, would not sit idle in his New York office while a court proceeding is on-going in Norway about a company that illegally sought control of the NY cement market and actually succeeded in that effort through bribery and influence peddling. Prof Lungu is not a lawyer, but that is racketeering to begin with. Throw in official corruption and abuse of power, and you have a fertile ground to vigorously defend the state and even allow young, but bright and ambitious attorneys to apply their legal skills to critically support their government and in the process become formidable bulwarks against corruption and stalwart of the peoples’ freedoms. Fairness here requires “elders” to lead by example and to do the right things. Then again, it is the legal thing, the legal requirement, an elementary requirement of the “Rule of Law.”

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Clearly, Ghana as a public is a victim of the absence of a Freedom of Information Bill. The persistence of official corruption, the yanking of the FOIB from the website of the Ghana Parliament, the “Builsa Traditional Council Affair,” only serve to underscore the problems. The program to reduce and eliminate corruption should identify all major linkages: truly empowering public servants and other officials though the Whistle-Blower law, enforcing the Asset Declaration Law and publishing the information, redefining the authority of the MP as a policy-maker (not a contract sponsor/awarder, or FOIB judge), positioning the CHRAJ and the SFO as truly independent and resourced arbiters of official corruption, and reprogramming the Ghana Police Service to prioritize activities, focusing on crimes against persons and investigation of corruption within. But all these efforts will not be effective unless linked to a strong FOIB that allows all to know how these things are actually achieving, by testing official data in all its contexts. It is called treating Ghanaians fairly no matter where they come from, no matter where they live in Ghana, no matter what ethnic group they belong to, no matter what their religion, etc., etc.

Bottom line is fairness and the rules of law require passage of FOIB without further delay. A strong FOIB should be passed that guarantees the “Freedom” of the people to know what their government is doing. Freedom is better than rights. Many responsible people in Ghana understand that, that is it important, hence the voices and chorus. Just make sure good government arguments do not ignore the FOIB factor, and all the linkages. It is fairness and a responsibility, a requirement even, as a testament of true visionary and selfless leadership for Ghana in 2007. In that sense, the FOIB should apply to all Ghanaian institutions except where the nature of the particular document makes an exemption necessary.

Pass the Ghana Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB) now. Ghana deserves no less, no later than 25 Dec 2007.