Question:
There is a general perception that corruption permeates nearly every facet of the Ghanaian
society. For example, the public service, the justice system and even the political establishment
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Dr. Abu Sakara Foster:
The first thing is to strengthen the institutions themselves. The issue of corruption is pervasive
because it is difficult to detect and it also becomes part of a habit and attitudinal changes.
Therefore we have to have mechanisms in place first to detect it. This is why I suggested that we
will have a complaints committee set up in offices and public places where people can go first to
make complaints. Thereafter, the Whistle-blowers Act which we have put in place but not
empowered because we do not give anonymity; we do not give security, we will make sure that
those things are in place to ensure that when people make complaints they are not the ones who
get punished. And this is very important to the detection of corruption.
We will also ensure that the Procurement Act and also measures which are put in place for
disbursement of funds in public institutions are tightened up. First of all, the issue of
decentralization is important to decentralize even the corruption because when it is all left in the
centre, it is of gargantuan proportions. But if we decentralize the funds for implementation to the
local level, where people can see what the money is meant for and have a measure of holding the
public officers accountable, we will reduce the incidence of crime and corruption. That is one of
the measures we shall put in place.
Furthermore, we will ensure that we take steps to recover the perceived benefits of corruption. If
people are left with the benefits of corruption, it is an incentive. If we take measures to recover
those assets and bring them back to the public purse, then it will give less opportunity and less
incentive for people to be involved in corruption. We also will do things that protect our security
forces themselves. We live in a community where everybody knows what everybody does, and
to enforce the law is almost to become a pariah. We need to educate people and change the
public awareness around that attitude so that when people are enforcing the law, they’re not seen
to be the pariahs and the wrongdoers. Rather they should be encouraged and praised.
Finally, I think the attitude of children who see gain in corruption needs to be stopped at an early
stage.
Hassan Ayariga:
I have not accessed the National Anticorruption Plan, so I cannot comment directly on it.
However, let me state my view on corruption. All the four of sitting here say we are against
corruption; Yes, we know corruption is inimical to national development, and all Ghanaians
must speak and act against it. Corruption takes several forms, political patronage, kickbacks on
contracts, inflated contract prices, nepotism. And all these are acts of corruption which Hassan
Ayariga will not countenance as a president.
Yes, we have institutions like CHRAJ, EOCO, Anticorruption Initiative, et cetera committed to
the fight against corruption. These institutions must be resourced, and the PNC government will
do more than what the other parties are promising in this respect. However, beyond supporting
these institutions, I feel as President you can best fight corruption by leading by example. My
father Nana was in the NPP government when President Kufuor defended corruption that it
started from Adam. This false principle translated to “chop make I chop”. You cannot lead the
fight against corruption with this mentality. When I say I will lead by example, I mean that I will
be truthful. You can speak the truth, you can fight corruption; and if you know even the free
senior high school is not possible yet you promise it, you are being untruthful and you are prone
to corruption. If you hide things about yourself and you come to tell us different things, it’s also
corruption.
We will also strengthen the state institutions with fighting corruption so to as that they
investigate and punish all persons engaged in corruption. Let me state one thing. Mallam Issah as
you know – I will not talk so much about it, but I will tell you one thing that the NPP
government did in prosecuting the PNC man when many, many other cases were sitting and
dismissed and we could not even find dockets; and they were missing in the Attorney General’s
office where my senior brother or my father was the Attorney General.
So Hassan Ayariga is saying, in dealing with corruption, the law should be no respecter of
persons. Simple and short, Hassan Ayariga will not keep company with drug dealers let alone
appoint them as advisors. Let me emphasize that my point of leadership by example is crucial in
the fight against corruption in all forms of government and public offices.
Nana Akufo-Addo:
I think that this is one of the most important matters confronting the development of our country.
How we can bring corruption under control, reduce and finally eliminate it from our political
bodies. I see the beginning from the example that the leader will give. If you are committed to
the fight against corruption, you yourself of course must not be corrupt. You yourself should be
somebody who can take on the fight because you’re not corrupt and never been and will not be.
That is the position in which I stand. I’ve not been corrupt, never will be and have not been.
That’s the first.
Secondly, we need also to strengthen the institutions that have to deal with matters of corruption.
Once again, obviously the police and the other agencies that now exist in our republic; the
CHRAJ, the EOCO and the rest. My own belief is that the remit of CHRAJ on issues of
corruption is too large, their remit generally, and that there is a need for us to have a dedicated
anticorruption agency that will deal with it.
Thirdly, the legislative framework. And nobody did a better job in putting the legislative
framework in place to deal with corruption than the government of J.A. Kufuor. The Whistle-
blower’s Act, the Procurement Law, the Financial Administration Act; all of these are the legal
basis that have been put in place to make the fight against corruption easy. One of the big things
is that the first time that the Whistle-blower’s Act was implemented, the whistleblowers,
contrary to the spirit and intention of the law, were the ones who found themselves in trouble.
Dismissed from the civil service, they had to go to court, to fight to bring their case. That clearly
did not send a good signal about the fight for corruption in the NDC.
We have had a series of events that have alarmed our nation. The most of course, are these very
famous, dubious judgment debts that have been paid out in the last few years. Large sums of
money, payments of which are very questionable and whose basis many people in Ghana
question as examples of high level corruption. We know about petty corruption that exists within
the bureaucracy. There is the need to deal with it, and we deal with it by simplifying the rules
and making it easier. But it is the mega corruption that we have seen in recent times that have
become the bane of our society and which we need to do something about.
We need to work in such a way that the leadership of our country will not countenance certain
types of conduct and that people will be ready to apply sanctions and punishment where it is
necessary.
John Dramani Mahama:
I’ll begin by just making a comment on something Honourable Nana Akufo-Addo said; to do
with judgment debts. Judgment debts properly, are debts that are adjudicated by courts of
competent jurisdiction, and so judgment debts themselves cannot be said to be an act of
corruption. It is what causes judgment debts that we must be tackling. The frivolous canceling of
contracts, what is it that triggers people to think they have a claim against government. That is
what we should be looking at. But to look at the symptom rather than the cure, I think for a
person who has such legal training, I think it’s a big miss – I can understand that if we are
desperate to win political power, we take any instrument and we use it against our political
opponents.
But let me say that much of the corruption in Ghana is anecdotal. Government alone cannot fight
corruption. It takes all our people to fight it. We must not just rumour corruption, we must be
prepared to stand against corruption. And I think that is one area in which we are lacking. Our
political parties, our civil society organizations, individuals, everybody likes to say I think this
person is corrupt, this person has done this, but they’re not prepared to hold the person’s feet to
the fire. And that’s one of the attitudes we must change if we are to make any progress with
corruption, because corruption is something that the giver and the taker or whoever benefits is
not going to come and say I have indulged in this. Whoever is aware that something like that has
happened should be prepared to stand up to it.
But the things we need to do which we have done over the past, the previous government did it;
that is true, putting legislation in place. We have come to continue with that. And I have said,
given a personal commitment that the day Parliament passes the Freedom of Information Bill,
the day it lands on my desk, I will sign it into law. I think that other issues such as the Public
Officers’ Accountability Bill which we are waiting to put into legislation. Reviewing the CHRAJ
law to allow the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to be able to
independently investigate cases of corruption rather than wait for a complaint to be made is one
of the issues that I’ll take up in my next term as president.
Expanding resourcing of the anticorruption agency, which we are doing. We’ve increased the
funding to CHRAJ. Indeed EOCO has seen a two, three hundred percent increase in financing, in
terms of personnel. Also personal leadership; I will lead by example in terms of corruption and
deal strongly with people who are corrupt in my government.
Decentralization, it’s one of the issues I was going to raise, my brother raised it. When you have
an over centralized system, it makes it more corrupt; if you decentralize and send the resources
to the local level, there is better supervision. Sting operations like Anas has been doing, we need
to involve the judiciary to see how it can be accepted as evidence in our courts. Unfortunately,
we don’t have that environment, and so when you do sting operations, it’s very difficult to
present that evidence before a court of law.
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