Ghanaian Rulers And Treasury

Let Ghanaian political office holders off the Ghanaian treasury. Let the President and other professional politicians be in charge of governance only while people with integrity and good character are placed to control our money and this will have its consequences in checking corruption in Ghana’s public offices. It will curtail the rat race for public offices and reduce electoral malpractices.

In my attempt to look for the greatest good for the greatest number, I am suggesting that a Trust be founded as a pool to control all Ghanaian income and expenditure.

I am not oblivious of the fact that those my suggestion will affect negatively will ferociously oppose this idea and therefore will do everything to scuttle it.

I expect people to say this idea will create two parallel governments or government within government. No, what I am simply suggesting is a kind of Trust manned by people with proven integrity who can only release money for running costs, salaries and for programs to be carried out by people in government.

When any project to be executed has passed due process and has been vetted by the Ghanaian public, the members of the Trust will now release the monetary instrument for its execution directly to the contractors on the advice of either the President or the Minister or anybody who is implementing such program.

This will not only check the menace of kickback and undue influence, it will eradicate the culture of paper contractors and unnecessary middlemen.

We only hear billions, billions and billions of cedis being spent on our behalf by Ghanaian rulers every day but without having anything to show for it in term of development and infrastructure in our Country. All we see are the mansions of Ministers, Legislators and even special aides. Because they are wicked but very stupid, these corrupt politicians dangle their wealth nakedly on the faces of more than 80 per cent of Ghanaians who wallow in abject poverty among whom are millions of university graduates.

Since Ghanaian rulers have been living like that unchecked in our almost 53 years of independence, there is no shaking as they have nothing to fear, after all, they are the boss and do not need our votes which never count in elections. They assume all the time that we are helpless.

The cabal has continued to use our commonwealth to harass and oppress the people it is supposed to look after because it has direct access to the Ghanaian vault.

Take America for example, the rulers set out their programs and those in charge of the money will release it to agencies or contractors that are to execute those projects and that is why you only see isolated cases of corruption in public offices in America. You will never see a public official becoming rich by virtue of his office in America. Whoever is rich among the political office holders there must have been rich before coming to public office.

Apart from the advantages that I have stated, this idea will empower contractors to do their work very well. A situation where a government official has to award a contract to a company or person with a condition that 5 per cent of the contract sum be paid back to him is wicked. Such a condition will put the contractor under undue pressure of executing the contract very well, meeting the running costs and making some profit.

It does not even stop at this point. We have seen so many cases of abandoned government projects over the years because good fraction of the money the contractor would have used to execute the project has been taken from him for personal use by the official who awarded the contract. When the contractor is in short of money to execute the project not to talk of making profit from it, the project is thus abandoned.

A government official who demanded and took a huge kickback from a contractor for awarding the contract which is his official duty through which he earns salaries from tax payers’ money will have no courage to persuade or force the contractor to finish the project.

Source: Prince Prah

Email: pkwesi72@yahoo.com /prahprince-prince.blogspot.com