A former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei,  has stated that politicians, political office holders and persons who have been involved in corruption in the past must not be allowed to go away with it.

He insisted that they must be investigated and brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others, saying; “This is not a political witch-hunting,” adding that political office holders in the immediate past government must be investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law.

“There must be a legislation to ensure that political office holders declare their assets publicly so that Ghanaians will know what properties they came with and how much they are taking away,” he stated.

He called on Transparency International and other spirited organisations to take the matter up and go to court to enforce it.

“It is inconceivable that deputy ministers could have three houses in East Legon and the rest  in just four years,” he stressed.

Good Corporate Governance

Prof. Adei said this at the launch of the Good Corporate Governance Initiative in Accra organised by Krif Ghana, in collaboration with Action Chapel International and the United States Embassy in Ghana.

The event was held on the theme: “Accelerating Ghana’s Development through Transparency and Integrity—From Talk to Action.”

Addressing the forum on the topic: “Implementing Integrity into Ghana’s National Development Agenda,” Prof. Adei urged government to tackle the recommendations of the Auditor-General’s report and apply the rules accordingly.

According to him, corruption in the previous government reached unacceptable levels; therefore, it was a good omen that the current administration had shown commitment to hold public office holders to account.

However, he said, the public often criticised politicians and political office holders for corruption but lost sight of the pervasive corruption in the public sector, saying bureaucratic corruption had reached unacceptable levels in the country and must be tackled systematically.

Transparency, accountability

He said the principle of transparency, accountability and integrity was the cornerstone for the progress of any nation; therefore, if the leadership of the country lacked these fundamental elements, things would deteriorate.

Prof. Adei said the AG’s report, last year, made startling revelations that the country had lost GH?6 million through various financial malfeasance in the public sector, adding that considering the fact that the report covered just about 10 per cent of the sector annually, it meant that the nation was losing higher amounts.

He stated, for instance, that at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Lands Commission and many other places, some of the rates of taxes are very high so when people go there to transact business, they negotiate and the state loses three quarters of its revenue and then the officials get about 10 per cent for their pockets.

Change of governments

“For example, if someone has to register land for GH?40,000.00, he ends up registering it for GH?5,000.00 and the official also pockets GH?5,000.00,” he opined.

Prof. Adei observed that since workers in the public sector remained there even after change of governments, some of them engaged in all sorts of shady deals.

He noted that though the country had made progress in certain areas such as education and health, while the average life expectancy is around 60 years, it had not realised its potential in view of the human and natural resource endowments compared to some of the countries we started developing with, including Malaysia and South Korea.

He also observed that the country had retrogressed in areas such as tackling corruption, integrity, accountability, environmental degradation, sanitation management and even patriotism.

He added that there was the need to simplify the rules for accessing public services to reduce the bureaucratic bottlenecks in order to accelerate national development.

Source: graphic.com