Ghana Must Stay Focused on Fighting Corruption

The last peaceful uprising against corruption and bad governance in Ghana is marching on with the second in a series of anti-corruption demonstrations scheduled for Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital on Saturday November 23, 2013.

When the Progressive People’s party (PPP) led Anti Corruption Coalition launched the anti-corruption campaign about two months ago, with the first demonstration in Accra, many were those who could barely imagine what it would become.

At the launch of the campaign, the coalition traced Ghana’s inability to attain sustainable economic development to corruption and bad economic governance. It was made clear that the 22 laws including the Public Procurement Act, on the country’s statute books will not make any meaningful impact in the fight against corruption unless the nation’s governance infrastructure, the system in which the laws operate, was reformed.

To that end, the coalition made three key demands of the Executive, which in its view remain the only realistic way of fighting corruption. It asked the President to:

i. Turn the Office of Attorney-General into an Independent Prosecutor’s Office separate from the Ministry of Justice so that the Office is removed from the negative influence of partisan politics.

ii. Separate the Legislature (Parliament) from the Executive (Presidency) so that effective checks and balance can operate without fear or favor; and

iii. Remove the “hand” of the Executive (Presidency) from the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, through popular election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) by the people.

Following these demands, Ghanaians were pleasantly surprised when The Paramount Chief of Esikado Traditional Area in the Western Region, Nana Kobina Nketsia V raised the alarm over corruption and bad governance in Ghana, not long after which similar concerns were expressed by Otumfuo Osei Tutu, the Asantehene.

Last Friday however, we were left in shock, on hearing that the President had unveiled his plans to fight corruption without a hint about reforms in the governance system necessary to uproot the canker that eats away some Three Billion Cedis of tax-payer and development money every year.

In the President’s own words, “Succeeding in the fight against corruption requires agencies in various autonomous institutions - the executive, legislature and judiciary- as well as, the general public to play their part and play it well; we must think outside the box because the old ways will not meet the expectations of our people. As a people our ability to fight corruption is weakened and limited when we entrust it to only the political elite or limit our social responsibility only to talking about it”.

To call for a paradigm shift without reforming the system that will operate the shift, creates a huge deficit in the President’s commitment to winning the fight against corruption and we are disappointed at that.

We also find it unusual, that Ghana’s Development Partners (DPs) have gone eternally silent on the matters of corruption and bad economic governance, when they know too well that corruption remains the bane to the country’s development efforts. We consider it necessary to remind our DPs of their role in contributing to good governance in Ghana. Should they continue to be silent on corruption that costs Ghana 3billion a year, the relevance of their partnership may soon be questioned.

Now that we know the President’s clear lack of interest in implementing reforms that will realistically fight and win the war against corruption, we wish to serve notice to every citizen of Ghana that the reforms we seek will not be given on a silver platter. We will have to fight for it through all legitimate means. All concerned citizens are called to get involved!

Signed:

William Dowokpor

Convener: PPP Anti-Corruption Coalition.

Contact: 024-3588422