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Kennedy Campaign Anti-Corruption Policy

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 Source: Kobina Kennedy

Introduction:

Corruption, the abuse of public office for private gain is the major obstacle to our development. It is divided into grand and petty corruption. Grand corruption involves politicians, senior officials and deals with significant amounts and resources. Petty corruption involves lower level officials like the police and customs officers who demand or receive something in exchange for public services. There are many forms of corruption; bribery, extortion, influence-peddling, nepotism, fraud and embezzlement.

In its “World Development Report” of 1983, the World Bank stated “Corruption seriously undermines the effectiveness of government. Over time, corruption tends to corrode public confidence in public institutions. Rent-seeking can become an obsessive pre-occupation. Public officials will do nothing without bribes and many people are unproductively employed in securing their favors or buying their silence. Corruption tends to favor those with economic or institutional power. Some corruption is on such a scale that it has major economic consequences; it may stimulate the illegal flight of capital or result in large projects being awarded to contractors (often multi-nationals companies) according to the size of their bribes rather than the quality of their performance” Next, the Africa Union and the “Africa Peer-Review Mechanism” have both expressed concerns about corruption. Indeed, according to the Africa Union in a 2004 study, Africa loses 148 billion dollars annually through corruption. Also, Chapter 24 of the 1992 constitution has a “code of conduct” for public officials and directs the “state to take all steps to eradicate corrupt practices and the abuse of power” through the “Directive Principles of State Policy”

Finally, every Ghanaian government from Nkrumah’s to the current one has pledged to fight corruption and yet none has escaped its taint.

Our history is littered with examples, big and small of corruption and the toll it has taken on our nation. To restrict ourselves to our recent history, in 2000, according to Global Integrity, the World Bank cancelled a 100 million dollar water improvement project in Ghana. The same organization reported a study that asserts that Ghanaians spend 10 percent of their income on bribes while forms spend about 40 percent of their revenues on bribes. Furthermore, in 2002, the Auditor-General’s report revealed that over $20 million was paid to 2000 ghost employees. To date, there have been no prosecutions. Recently, the then Minister for interior witnessed a policeman receiving a bribe and instead of taking action ordered an investigation to ascertain whether he saw what he saw. Corruption has affected all of our branches of government and all aspects of our society during out post-independence life. As we prepare this policy, the Georgina Woode committee is investigating the disappearance of impounded cocaine and its reach into our law enforcement, security and political establishments. It is a fundamental obstacle to our development and we must and will confront it.

The policy is divided into the following broad areas.

1: Prevention

2: Accountability

3: Reforms

4: Public Education

5: Leadership by example

6: Tools and Systems for monitoring performance

POLICY OBJECTIVES

1: To significantly alter through education the culture of general tolerance and sometimes adulation for ill-gotten wealth.

2: To engender public confidence in the integrity of governmental institutions and officialdom through the consistent and honest delivery of services to people and organizations.

3: To improve Ghana’s image in the eyes of the international business community through significant and sustained improvement in performance during surveys.

4: To attain measurable improvement in the automation and transparency of governance processes and activities through the use of technology and access to information laws.

5: To maximize public confidence in our political parties by increasing transparency and popular participation in their internal decision-making; both during elections and policy making.

POLICY

1: Prevention

a: Transparency - Enact political party participation and financing law that will increase popular participation in party elections, reduce the influence of private, unaccountable money and increase transparency.

- Enact sunshine laws that introduce transparency into the financing and other aspects of elections and governance activities.

- Enact freedom of information laws that permits journalists and citizens to obtain information on governance and public activities in a timely manner.

- Mandate declaration and publication of the assets of public officials.

- Automate government processes/services at all levels.

b: Reform corporate governance

i: internal and external audits

ii: certification of controls

2: Accountability

a: Investigations - Strengthen and rationalize CHRAJ, SFO, BNI, and CID with insulation from political pressure.

- Use of laws on causing loss to the state.

- Whistleblower protection and reward laws

b: Effective Prosecutions

- Special prosecutors for government corruption.

- Granting of prosecutorial powers to CHRAJ.

- Judiciary reform

i: reform of appellate process and practices to bring certainty to the length of cases.

ii: strengthen and enforce code of ethics for judiciary

iii: tracking of cases to determine disposition rate.

iv: clarify and define the discretionary powers of the Chief Justice in assigning cases to judges and courts.

v: mandating the publication of judicial opinions at the same time the opinion is released.

- Reform of the bar

Develop in collaboration with stakeholders, stricter sanctions for lawyers engaged in the willful delay of cases or the perversion of justice.

c: Effective parliamentary oversight

i require parliament to issue quarterly updates on their activities in response to the Auditor General’s report.

ii: appropriate sufficient resources to agencies involved in fighting corruption.

iii: hold public hearings on government activities in non-partisan manner.

d: Asset recovery

- Civil prosecutions after criminal verdicts to recover assets.

- Work with International financial Institutions law enforcement agencies under the principles of UN Convention against Corruption.

3: Institutional/Processes/Financial Reforms

a: Wages, salaries and benefits reforms for civil servants and public officials to make them realistic.

b: Establish non-partisan, regulatory body for the police with investigative powers.

c: Review customs and excise processes performance and excise duties to reduce incentives for corruption.

4: Public Education to change the attitudes of ordinary citizens, religious leaders, civil servants, elected officials , judges and other stakeholders regarding corruption.

a: use of mass media

b: changes in school curricular c: involvement of NGO’s

5: Demand and insist on public integrity and exemplary leadership from our leaders.

6: Develop tools for monitoring our performance against certain standards.

PRESS STATEMENT ON CORRUPTION

Since its inception, the Kennedy campaign has been based on four foundations;

a: Ideas matter b: Competence is irrelevant if not coupled with integrity c: There is a need for fundamental change in the competences, attitudes and spirit of our nation’s leaders. d: Elections are about the future, not the past.

I pledged that my campaign will be based on visionary ideas that will transform our nation. Already, the campaign has a web-site and began the development of concrete ideas, strategies and plans to tackle our nation’s problems. Central amongst these problems are corruption, unemployment, healthcare, education road traffic accidents, lack of environmental cleanliness and urbanization.

Over the next eighteen months, my campaign will release policies on many of the problems that confront our nation. We challenge other campaigns and parties to do the same. We urge them to join us and the people of Ghana in a vigorous discussion of the different visions that we have for moving our nation forward. This will lead to a healthy campaign and the election of the best person for the Presidency. He or she will be a person whose ideas, priorities and tendencies are well-known to the nation before the vote. I urge the media to help the public understand the candidates by reporting fairly on our ideas and activities without bias. While there are some who believe the media should dispassionately regurgitate information fed them by candidates, my campaign believes journalists should help the voters to pick the best candidate guided only by the supreme interest of our nation. I urge the public to insist on a positive campaign based on ideas from all candidates.

Today, I am releasing a policy on corruption. My campaign concedes that others too have ideas and perspectives on how to fight corruption. We urge them to join the conversation we are starting today. Amongst the multiple problems that confront our nation, none has proved more difficult to tackle than corruption. Since independence, forty-five commissions of inquiry have been established on corruption alone. Sanctions applied against corruption have ranged from fines to brutal executions without improvement. As I write, the Woode commission is looking into the interconnections between law enforcement and government officials and the drug trade in our nation. Neither the revelations nor the politicization of the drug problem augurs well for our nation.

For our nation, the abuse public office for private gain has the following broad repercussions;

1: It distorts economic and social development.

2: It hinders administrative and institutional development.

3: It reduces public resources by diverting them into private pockets.

4: It affects professionalism in the public service by distorting the basis for promotion and rewards.

5: It engenders wrong choices

6: It undermines political stability by undermining public confidence in leaders and institutions.

In the end, corruption is a regressive and unfair tax on the poor.

The fight against corruption in our democratic polity must of necessity begin in our political parties. The public perception that a few anonymous people with money, irrespective of how it was acquired can purchase the nomination and by implication the most exalted offices in our land is undermining public confidence in our political process. We must require that in our primary processes so many participate that bribery is impossible. My administration will fight to increase transparency and public participation in all aspects of all of our political parties by working with parliament to enact a “Political parties reform and financing bill”. This campaign believes that the public’s perception that our parties’ primary processes may be corrupt can produce leaders who lack the legitimacy, respect or moral authority to lead our great nation. Therefore, we must stop making it almost impossible for people to succeed in politics without soiling their hands.

The policy that I have laid out covers all phases and actors in the corruption drama. It seeks to decrease corruption by increasing transparency in governance and procurement. It will compel public officials not only to declare their assets but to have them published. That is what Adolfo Ruiz Cortines did upon assuming the Presidency of Mexico in 1952. By publishing his assets and compelling all his appointees to do likewise, he significantly reduced corruption during his term.

This policy will empower investigative agencies like CHRAJ and SFO by giving those adequate resources and prosecutorial powers and insulating them from political pressures. The strengthened authority will enable them to investigate public officials who are living above their means and ascertain their sources of extra income. This approach was tried by Singapore in the 1970’s and it led to significant a significant reduction in corruption.

The policy seeks to significantly reduce the motivation for public officials like customs officers, policemen and civil servants to be corrupt by paying those realistic wages. These initiatives will be financed with increasing revenue from their reformed departments. Under my policy, Parliament will be empowered and given the necessary resources to carry out effective oversight of executive branch and other governmental institutions.

My administration will streamline the delivery of justice by speeding up the processes and procedures in our justice system so that it is seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem. It will make the administration of justice fair and timely and restore the public’s confidence in our judicial system.

The public will be educated and empowered to be watchdogs of the public resources by the enactment and enforcement of “freedom of information” and “whistle-blower protection” and reward laws. This education will challenge all sectors of our society to demand integrity from our leaders, insist on accountability and end the shameful practice of celebrating or at best tolerating ill-gotten wealth.

I know that some of these measures will take months and sometimes years to implement. Therefore within the first hundred and twenty days of my administration, I will exercise all the maximum authority available to me by issuing the necessary executive orders to implement measures that I can institute without the concurrence of parliament or other branches of government within the bounds of the constitution. During this same period, my administration will reach agreement with the relevant NGO’s and parliament on monitoring and outcome measures for this policy. As part of this agreement, there will be monitoring of the quality of public procurement in our major ministries and largest state-owned enterprises using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD-DAC) Baseline Indicator Set for Procurement (BIS) tool. This was instituted by the Philippines in 2005 and has already led to a significant decrease in corruption.

In fighting corruption, my campaign does not seek to fight the wealthy. Indeed, our nation’s economic vibrancy depends on the honest creation of wealth and the attendant well-paying jobs. As Lincoln said, “We cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich” We should welcome those who through their diligence and ingenuity can create wealth, jobs and growth in our economy.

In fighting corruption, we shall be fighting for the very soul of our nation. A nation in which money acquired in large amounts, maybe from criminal activities can bend the national, institutional or electoral processes to the will of a few faceless men and women is in danger. This fight must have integrity. It must not be used as an excuse to persecute those of a certain political, religious or tribal persuasion.

Finally, in this fight, I know that passing more laws or establishing new commissions or organs with fancy names will not be enough. It will be won or lost in the hearts and minds of our people who reportedly spend a tenth of their wages, salaries and incomes on bribery. I am convinced that this fight must be led by men and women of unquestioned integrity and passion for accountability. I will provide that by naming into my government and the judiciary men and women of stellar reputations and boundless integrity and hold them ruthlessly to account. We cannot put in positions of responsibility people whose history, attitudes and tendencies are inconsistent with goals we seek to attain. This is because people are policy and one cannot lead others to a place where he/she will not go. We will lead this fight with your support, together, by being the example that we wish to see. For more information, visit our campaign website at: www.arthurkkennedy.com May our nation grow from strength to strength.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy (25/08/06) Emails to: arkoke@aol.com

References;

a: Prof J.R.A. Ayee in “Saints, Demons and Wizards”

b: World Bank Reports

c: Global Integrity

d: Prof George Ayittey in “Africa in Chaos”

Source: Kobina Kennedy