Corruption — From improved perception to aggressive action
Constantly under attack for its allegedly blunt anti-corruption agenda, it is interesting to observe the government’s soaring confidence with the recent release of the 2015 global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International. According to Myjoyfmonline.com, “Government Beats its Chest over latest corruption perception index ranking”
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And so we have the communications minister describing the report as a testament to the government’s commitment to the fight against the canker. The President himself took to Facebook, claiming, “Our fight against corruption is visible.
In 2008, Ghana was ranked 67th in the world, and in 2012 it was ranked 64th.
Since 2008, we are constantly moving upward, towards the group of less corrupt countries, and that’s a fact. From 2012 until 2015, Ghana climbed up no less than eight places in the world hierarchy – which, no matter what others might say, is an unparalleled achievement.”
Improvement
The President does have a point about undeniable improvement in the perception of less corruption in the public sector given the consistency of the performance since 2008. In process improvement, a pattern of at least five consistently increasing points clearly establishes a trend, indicative of a non-random pattern.
In other words, whatever improvements are being observed are not attributable to chance. This I suppose is where our governments will tout the passage of procurement laws, financial administration regulations in the public sector, high-profile cases being given hearings by state institutions such as the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and sporadic prosecutions of high-profile cases such as the case of the National Service Secretariat etc.
Also, because Transparency International actively encourages citizen vigilantism against public sector corruption, it is entirely feasible to predict that actions of Ghanaian citizens against perceived corrupt acts in Ghanaian courts, and in some cases obtaining favourable judgements, might have all contributed to this observed trend.
Is there really cause for celebration?
But there are other concerns. First of all, if CPI scores below 50, it is indicative of serious levels of public sector corruption as per TI, then our celebration should be at best muted with our score of 47.
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And in this particular week, with the somewhat damning revelations at the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of public sector officials, flagrantly abusing procurement processes and losing the government and tax payers millions of cedis, one need not look far.
What is the use of having institutions that rigorously document public sector corruption as an annual ritual like the Auditor General’s department, and institutions that publicly expose public sector corruption such as the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, if the government is somehow unable to take aggressive practical steps to retrieve the millions lost, sometimes through plain thievery? What is the use of securing favourable judicial rulings if they cannot be executed promptly with visible demonstration to the citizens of ability and readiness to protect the public purse?
Prosecution and retrieval
I have no doubt that what it would take Ghana to move from below 50 (indicative of very serious public sector corruption) to figures closer to 100 (indicative of cleaner public sectors) is robust practical implementation of anti-corruption measures, including aggressive prosecution and physical retrieval of funds from public officials who treat the public purse with indifference in their daily dealings.
I have often wondered why the government has not clearly established a cycle where after each hearing of the Public Accounts Committee upon submission of the Auditor General’s report, an opportunity is not given by the Attorney General for individuals to return all misappropriated funds to the consolidated fund to be swiftly followed upon expiration by aggressive prosecutions.
Special courts could be set up for this. But that said, it is still not clear what became of the last Presidential directive for the prosecution of officials found wanting after the release of yet another damning report by the Auditor General.
The report by TI also points out the very global nature of corruption as it reflects that “Sixty-eight per cent of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem.
Half of the G20 are among them” claims TI. A quick reading of the report’s highlights show deleterious linkages between corruption and poverty, inequity, loss of jobs, conflict, poor health indices.
In Angola for example, the report points out that 70 per cent of the population live on US$2 a day or less. One in six children die before the age of five – making it the deadliest place in the world to be a child.”
It also draws attention to countries such as Sweden with exceptionally clean public sectors but with companies engaged in corrupt practices in foreign countries such as Uzbekistan. In fact, the report points out that practically “half of all OECD countries are violating their international obligations to crack down on bribery by their companies abroad.”
In 2015, I met two Nigerians who both said, “Ghana is spoiling small small”. Their yardstick was the fact that for the first time in a very long time, officials had brazenly demanded tips from them at the Kotoka International Airport. Hopefully, this should remind us all of our collective roles in tackling the canker of corruption.
Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey
Sodzi_tettey@hotmail.com
www.sodzisodzi.com