The Public Accounts Committee hearings are quite instructive to watch.
The revelation of various irregularities leads one to wonder how the purveyors of these acts view public service and the role they play as people entrusted with serving the needs of Ghanaians.
What I find even mind-boggling is how these irregularities can occur. Institutions are not perfect creations, and neither are the men and women who work in and for them.
As James Madison, one of the founders of America, once said, “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary.
If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
His point was simply this – because human nature is flawed and very impractical to bring down angels from heaven to govern the affairs of men, any government worth its salt must be able to ensure that a) citizens do the right thing; and b) more importantly, those who govern are able to do the right thing too.
So why is it that year after year, the Ghanaian is exposed to these stories of malfeasance in the public sector as captured by the Auditor General’s report? And most importantly, what, if anything, can be done about it?
The Auditor General’s Report
Anyone who has paid close attention to the Auditor General’s report over the years will notice that the type of irregularities committed across our public institutions has not necessarily changed. Rather, what appears to have changed is the magnitude and the associated costs. To put it bluntly, it is costing Ghanaians millions of cedis in taxpayer money.
Reflect for a moment on the costs of these irregularities from the 2024 report.
1. The total cost of irregularities from public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions was GH¢18,415,673,589.
2. The total cost of irregularities from ministries, departments and other agencies was GH¢2,055,094,878.
3. The total cost of irregularities from district assemblies was GH¢18,884,198.22
Now, proceed and compute the combined total of all these irregularities and ask what that has cost the Ghanaian in terms of basic public provision such as schools, health facilities and roads, among others.
That is why the yearly ritual of reading the Auditor General’s report and watching the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearings is frustrating.
What adds to the frustration is the feeling that the cost of these irregularities may never be fully recovered.
Irregularities
The puzzle is, why do these irregularities occur so regularly year after year?
Even more puzzling is the fact that not only are there rules governing how public funds are spent, but there are people within our public institutions charged with ensuring that the rules are complied with.
I think of these internal mechanisms and the people who oversee them as police patrols.
If you think about how police patrols work, they are not only there to arrest those who break the law but are also there to prevent the rules from being broken.
So, why do our police patrols keep failing in such spectacular fashion? Is it that they look away?
Is it that they are complicit? Is it that they are inefficient and ineffective?
Is it that those who perpetrate these irregularities are better able to outmanoeuvre them?
I do not have answers to these questions, but my strong hunch is that a combination of all the above is the reason we see the irregularities happen.
If so, our challenge is how to ensure that our police patrols can decisively solve this problem.
Do we need more rules? I am not sure, because there is no shortage of rules on the books to ensure that these irregularities do not occur.
What then is the way forward?
Food for thought
To stop or at least drastically reduce these irregularities, the certainty of punishment is key.
If the perpetrators of these irregularities know that their actions will impose severe costs on them because of a strong system of accountability, it will serve as a deterrent.
But when it appears, there is no cost to improper administrative behaviour, then no incentive exists to play by the rules.
Beyond the certainty of punishment, it seems to me that a reorientation of what public service is truly about is sorely needed.
That kind of ethos where public service is viewed as serving citizens and protecting the taxpayer’s money, which the State uses its coercive powers to collect in the name of providing public goods, can contribute greatly to solving this problem.
At least I am hopeful that it can.
The writer is the Project Director, Democracy Project.
