John Dramani Mahama is a frustrated President. He finds it pathetically slow the pace at which the state has been retrieving monies stolen by public servants exposed at hearings of the Public Accounts Committee.
“Why must we, every year, congregate at the Public Accounts Committee and hear all kinds of atrocious things done with public funds and resources?” he asked, noting, for example, that the Auditor-General’s report often uncovers misappropriations of up to GH¢15 billion.
“If we save GH¢15 billion, can you imagine what it could do?”
The President was so livid that he made a vow, swearing to find a “final solution” to the recurring mismanagement highlighted in the Auditor-General’s reports. For starters, he would meet with the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and other key stakeholders on Thursday.
He was speaking at the 12th Annual Conference of Chairpersons of Governing Boards and Councils, Chief Directors, and Chief Executives, organised by the Public Services Commission in Ho.
Unfortunately, outbursts like this, instead of driving us insane enough to vow a war against perpetrators of such deeds, are received with cynicism by the same Ghanaians whom the thievery is depriving of infrastructure and a good life. “We have heard that before”, that is, we typically dismiss such concerns, telling ourselves and everybody within earshot, that “Ehuru a ebedwe,” to wit, “Allow the water to boil; it will soon cool”
And because of such levels of cynicism, the rape of the country goes on.
Far from pronouncing a verdict on the latest case, one involving two former top directors of the National Service Authority (NSA), whom the Attorney General has arraigned before court on charges of fraud and theft involving some GH¢653 million, my stomach turns at the details – if they are true.
Why do our political office holders and their appointees continue to do this to us?
It is because they know that even if they are jailed, eight years will soon come, their party will come to power, and another Attorney-General will file nolle prosequi, freeing them to resume celebrating the loot?
Again, I ask: why are political appointees doing this to us?
Their salary alone, with nothing added, is enough not only to take them home but also to fund their highlife account.
Their per diem for overseas travels is impressive indeed. With one overseas trip per quarter, an appointee’s fortune begins to run parallel to poverty. Plus, there are the “thank you” envelopes from contractors who win contracts supervised by the ministry or state agency. In Ghana, appointees do not have to ask for it; the envelope will be brought, either physically or paid into bank accounts.
An appointee who is an economiser, wise with the use of money, can retire into their own house after four years in office – that is, MY type of house. Things get ugly when appointees with no previous working experience begin to dream bigger.
Nor is it the greed of the individual appointee alone; it is also this political system which is strangling us to annihilation, but against which we are so helpless. It’s got something to do with the democracy we have chosen to practice. The winner comes in to take all. After eight years, maximum, out of power, they or their party come in again, after two election cycles, to free every criminal.
Of course, we appreciate the slow-grinding process of law-giving! We also know of deliberate delay tactics of adjournments, injunctions and appeals to higher courts, human rights courts, ECOWAS courts etc – all of which, often, nobody can do anything about.
There is something, however, we can do. If the Supreme Court, as manager of its own rules, took a leaf from the consequences of the delay occasioned by the protracted 2011 election petition hearings, and adopted measures to speed up the 2016 hearings, what stops the Judiciary from coming to the aid of the country with innovations intended to fast-track economic trials, especially involving “money-chopping”?
Unfortunately, prosecutions of economic crimes committed by political criminals are tending to look like a charade. It’s a waste of precious judicial time, knowing that in four years, maximum eight years, incumbent Attorneys General will file nolle prosequi.
In addition to our proverbial spirit of forbearance and Christian fortitude, is this fair to Ghanaians?
In a country where political criminals know no shame, the system is emboldening crime. All that the freed convict needs is a seat on a “newspaper review” panel on an FM station; soon, they are given another political appointment, handing them the power to pontificate economic theories, even preach in some churches after a few donations. They are back in town, as if God wiped out the past.
If Mahama is asking for fast-track trials and quicker jail terms, the above should be his thoughts. In Ghana’s political system, no politician is a criminal forever.
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