Me, my tribe, my party…Ghana can wait
A Medical Doctor, Ken Nii Aryeetey has crossed the boundary into that country where nothing surprises anybody. The Christian Bible describes Jesus Christ as a man acquainted with grief. Dr Aryeetey is acquainted with the character of the Ghanaian’s greed. As a science student, he committed what I describe as the “fatal error” of reading English Literature. In doing so, he encountered and fell in love with his favourite George Orwell character, Benjamin, in Animal Farm.
Advertisement
The good thing is that Dr Aryeetey, after more than 30 years of practising Medicine, still lives by the taciturnity born out of the principles of Benjamin, the donkey.
Pressed for his opinion on why Ghanaians, in the abundance of water, are so thirsty, Dr Aryeetey’s diagnosis is that for the Ghanaian who finds himself in any position of advantage, the creed is: “Me, My Tribe, My Party.” Ghana either does not feature in the order or comes a disappointingly distant last.
I spent the greater part of last week talking to scientists who feel called to be part of the solution, rather than the problems facing Ghana.
Excited by a new invention that could solve one or two of Ghana’s problems, they responded to an advert and put in their bid. A few days later, they were called to the Ministry (name withheld). The Minister, equally excited, referred them to the Chief Director or some such high placed official on whose hand the Minister leans.
The civil servant – chief policy adviser to the politician – listened, nodding approval intermittently. Saving the best for the last, the scientists went in for the kill, promising that “above all, this invention will save a lot of money”.
The civil servant quickly retorted: “Saving money? For whom?”
Not schooled in the language of the typical Ghanaian entrepreneur, the scientists’ enthusiastic reply was: “For Ghana!” They were asked to go with the assurance that they would “hear from us soon”
‘Soon’ turned into a year. To their dismay, the project had started, handled by a consultant whose calibre they knew very well. Their sense of patriotism was wounded. They knew how much Ghana was losing by the contract, both in quality of work and in finances. They thought they should draw the
Minister’s attention to the “mistake”, but someone who knew the way things are done in this country advised against the move. If they did, he warned, they would be blacklisted forever. The reality is that the civil servant was not acting alone.
At Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, I read from the notice board, a circular REMINDING all concerned that the hospital’s medical laboratories were functioning. Curious why Korle Bu had to place such a notice for the information of its own staff, I checked. My jaw dropped.
The circular was intended to put an end to the practice which allowed staff of private labs from entering the wards with their bottles to take blood and urine samples of patients. Their telephone numbers were strategically displayed everywhere. The excuse was that either Korle Bu had run out of reagents or that lab tests by Korle Bu technicians took forever or were unreliable.
The truth was that either the private labs were owned by some Korle Bu staff or that they (staff) were paid a commission according to the number of patients referred there. The Supervisors were either complicit or were not aware of the fraud being perpetrated in the Korle BU laboratories. The reagents got stolen by the technicians and sold to the private labs.
To ensure availability, the reagents were never used at all for Korle Bu patients. Blood and urine samples were taken alright but never got tested; the staff filled out the relevant portions on the form with cooked up figures. The result was that there were Korle Bu doctors who did not trust results from the hospital’s lab.
In one hospital, the accounts clerk attached to a ward approaches a patient who has just been discharged. The clerk picks the bill prepared by the nurses and makes a deal with the patient. If the bill is GHc2,000.00, he asks you to pay GH¢1,000. To cover his tracks, he issues a receipt covering the amount. Most patients are only too willing to play along because the saving is enormous.
It so happened (as such cases often do) that one of the patients so approached was a priest. After paying the money and taking the receipt, he reported the matter to the ward authorities (the Matron) who, in turn, reported it to the hospital’s Head of Accounts. The offending clerk was quietly transferred to another ward. Why was the punishment so lenient? You guessed right: the accounts clerk was not alone in that business.
Are you a contractor or consultant who completed a contract for government two—three years ago and have still not been paid? I am told that throughout history, there have been people at the Presidency—relations of the President, buddies and party men who can get you your cheque from the Ministry of Finance, with just one phone call. For a contract sum of GH¢12,000,000, something in the region of GH¢1,200.000 is retained by the “good Samaritan”.
Talk to them about integrity, the retort is: “Who eats integrity?”
Dr Nii Aryeetey has the answer: “Me, My Tribe, My Party: Ghana can wait”
To be continued