Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu – Auditor General
It is typical of some Ghanaians to point accusing fingers at others describing them in very unprintable terms. They forget that whenever one points a finger at a neighbour, the other four are directed at them.
That is the state of our society today when it has become normal to call those in government corrupt, thieves and criminals whereas given the opportunity, those calling others names will be worst of.
No doubt the sages always remind us that leadership is the true mirror of our society. Reports from the ongoing sittings of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has not indicted any minister of state but public servants who are alleged by the Auditor General to have misapplied public funds. As a people we shall misdirect our fight against corruption if our target is always a politician.
We are unable to make a distinction between those identified by the Auditor General, between politicians, and those actually misappropriating state revenue as a section of the public assume that only the duty bearers are culpable.
When last year the Auditor General revealed that about 17 billion cedis has been lost to the state, there was public outcry against the government for lack of accountability of public funds at a time we have ran to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.
The government cannot escape blame though as again our elders say that when the public’s assets are left in your care, then you are obliged to take good care of it. The people who are quick to jump to conclusions do so because the Attorney General under whose aegis the “stolen money” must be retrieved is a member of the government. Thus if the culprits are left off the hook, the government is accused of connivance with those public servants alleged to have embezzled the funds. When last year the Auditor General came out with its report, those who criticised the government for its inability to protect the public purse included some members of academia whose institutions are engaged in wrongdoing.
Ghanaians were stunned last week when it was disclosed at the PAC that two of the country’s penultimate universities have breached the regulations on accreditation of courses. With impunity they threw the laws into the dustbin and admitted students to do courses that in the true sense of the word cannot earn them any employment.
So far as the courses were not accredited, the certificates so awarded by the University of Ghana, Legon and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi are worthless documents. Our universities are supposed to be centres to develop the ability for critical thinking among our youth and also to be patriotic, but in a situation where the universities are cutting corners, these students would have been injected with the corruption canker.
The KNUST and the University of Ghana are institutions of higher learning that have won global acclaim, and their utter disregard for what is right has certainly dented that image.