Albert Kan-Dapaah (second left), with Justice Emile Short (second right) during a panel discussion at the symposium
Chartered Accountant and former Defence Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has urged Ghanaians to stop relying on Parliament, the Judiciary and the Auditor-General to fight corruption in the public sector.
Mr. Kan Dapaah made the appeal on Wednesday in Accra while delivering a speech at a special corruption symposium organized by the Forum for Media Accountability and Democratic Governance (FOMADEG), a civil society organization which adheres to the principle of non-partisanship and independence.
Speaking under the theme: ‘Redefining our Ethos as a Nation,’ the chartered accountant said Parliament, Judiciary and Auditor-General’s Office, the three constitutionally established institutions tasked with responsibility of fighting corruption, have remained ineffective over the years with respect to executing their oversight responsibility to check corruption.
“The institutions that have been put in place to hold the government to account have not been effective,” he said.
According to Mr. Kan Dapaah, the ability of Members of Parliament (MPs), judges and the Auditor-General to effectively fight corruption was questionable.
He urged citizens to protect state properties and funds, as well as crackdown on corruption.
“We need to be very vigilante in protecting public funds in the hands of the politicians,” he said.
He said if citizens do not protect their resources entrusted to politicians, they would continue to be stolen.
According to him, the country needs functional accountability mechanisms and institutions to ensure that government can be held accountable.
He wondered how an Auditor-General, who is supposed to audit the President, can do his or her work creditably when it’s the same president that appointed him or her.
“The second key accountability institution that the constitution put in place to safeguard our assets as a nation is Parliament.”
With the majority of MPs from the President’s party, it would be difficult to have them hold the President to account because doing so might jeopardize their chances of being appointed as ministers of state and receiving other benefits from the first gentleman of the land, he said.
Weak Sanction Regime
According to him, “The ease with which monies can be stolen and secondly the knowledge among public servants that no sanctions will be applied even if they were caught were responsible for the unending corruption canker in the country.
“Monies can easily be stolen in the public sector primarily because of the ineffectiveness of our accountability institutions and mechanisms, coupled with our fear to apply sanctions against those who will steal,” he added.
Government, having been entrusted with the management of public resources, must be answerable for the use of the resources to the citizenry after all they provide the resources,” he said.
Values Declining
Mr. Kan Danpaah pointed out that the absence of a clearly defined national value was militating against the country’s ability to tackle corruption.
Former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short, could not fathom why Parliament takes so long in passing anti-corruption legislations but less time to approve huge loans.
He urged the citizenry to question the political will of parliamentarians in fighting corruption when it comes to the passage of anti-corruption laws.
According to him, moral and ethical values in the Ghanaian society have declined, adding that corruption had permeated every aspect of national life.
Meanwhile, Daniel Addo-Danquah, Director in-charge of Operations, FORMADEG, has stressed the need to redefine the ethos of Ghana.
By Melvin Tarlue