The latest scandal, in which a British cocoa exporting company operating in Ghana, Amajaro, succeeded in using its political connections in the UK, to get the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to rescind a decision to ban it from buying cocoa beans in Ghana (as a result of its agents being caught red-handed smuggling bags of cocoa beans to the Ivory Coast – in a video-recording by Ghana’s leading investigative journalist, Anas Ameriyaw), illustrates perfectly, the incredible naiveté and ignorance, of the many third-rate individuals who surround our leaders, and the baleful influence of some foreign powers, on so many of the members, of our largely-unimaginative political class. Before I proceed any further, dear reader, let me say emphatically, that I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that contrary to what some of his political opponents allege, Vice President John Mahama, did not personally receive any financial reward for any assistance, which he might have rendered Amajaro, as a result of appeals from a number of UK politicians and senior officials. Knowing the culture in Ghana, however, it is stretching credulity, for anyone to say that he knew nothing about the decision by the COCOBOD, to rescind its decision to ban Amajaro, from exporting cocoa beans from Ghana.
Obviously, if any money was collected by anyone for the eventual outcome, it probably ended up in the very deep pockets, of some of the small greedy group of ace-hypocrites and super-crooks, who lurk amongst the many fine and honest individuals (who serve our nation diligently, on a daily basis!), at Ghana's seat of power: the Osu Castle. However, the question that all well-meaning, independent-minded, and patriotic individuals in Ghana must ask, is: Why did no one in his circle (including those given cushy sinecures by his regime at the Ghana High Commission in London!) alert the vice president, of the existence of the new Bribery Act in the UK – so that he could point that out to the UK politicians and officials who asked him to intervene on Amajaro’s behalf: and politely tell them that unfortunately there was nothing much that he could do about it, as such was the degree of political awareness amongst ordinary Ghanaians, today, that any intervention on his part, would immediately elicit a response from some clever fellow from one of the opposition parties, who would most likely point out the existence of the UK Bribery Act, and demand that his intervention be brought to the notice of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)?
Surely, the time has come for members of our political class, and the senior public officials who advise them, to understand clearly, that once the U.K. Bribery Act comes into force in April 2011, they could end up being personally charged, together with executives of UK companies involved in bribery in Ghana, whose companies have not taken adequate steps to ensure that third parties do not pay bribes on their behalf – if any acts of omission or commission, resulting in dereliction of duty, and occasioned by offered advantage of any kind, can be traced directly to them? The days of impunity are clearly over for those accepting bribes from the agents of UK companies operating here. To digress a little: For the over-ambitious Mrs. Nana Kunadu Agyemang Rawlings' information, if her past secret dealings with Mabey & Johnson and Biwater took place a year hence, she would be charged together with their executives, and probably receive a long prison term from a UK judge: outraged that Ghana could be robbed in broad daylight, by some members of its ruling elite, in such callous fashion. The harsh outcome for Ghanaian officials and politicians who bend over backwards to please UK businesses, is, alas, also no different from that, which they can expect, from their dealings with U.S. companies operating here, too.
Unluckily for them, the reach of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-bribery laws, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, passed in July 2010, extend here. If they are not yet aware of it, they must understand that any whistle-blowing individuals from Ghana, who submit “original information” to the U.S. authorities, which ends up in a U.S. company being penalized for an FCPA violation in excess of US$1 million, will receive anything from between 10 to 30 percent of any penalty collected. Is that not incentive enough, for example, for those politically well-connected individuals in Ghana, who know the dark secrets of the powerful crooks amongst our political class, who siphon off taxpayers’ funds from sundry contracts, I ask – especially when they are allowed to provide such information anonymously through a lawyer? Incidentally, some of the cynics and conspiracy theorists in our midst, say that the fact that U.S. companies that acquire U.S. domiciled businesses operating overseas, can inherit liability for a FCPA violation, which was committed before a takeover, by the acquired company’s employees or agents, might have a bearing on the withdrawal of ExxonMobil from takeover talks with Kosmos Oil.
Let the many clever white-collar criminals in our country, and elsewhere around the globe, who are ripping Mother Ghana off daily, be informed that some of the agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.), now focus exclusively on FCPA cases. The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) has also set up a dedicated FCPA unit. One hopes the Ghanaian vice president and other government officials will now take note of the increasing trend in which Western nations are charging executives of companies from their countries, whose businesses offer bribes to public officials overseas, as well as those local public officials themselves, in law courts in the U.S., the U.K., and other nations in the E.U. Henceforth, they must simply ignore all pleas from government ministers and officials from those selfsame Western nations (which often accuse African nations of being corrupt!) to bend the rules in favour of errant businesses domiciled in their countries, which break our laws, to enable them get away with their crimes against our homeland Ghana.
Finally, dear reader, one's humble advice to Ghana's vice president, is that he ought to ponder awhile, and ask himself whether if the boot had been on the other foot, the UK government ministers who approached him to help Amajaro, would have agreed to any request from him to help a Ghanaian company operating in the U.K., which had been caught on a video tape-recording by a top British journalist, smuggling goods in or out of the U.K. Henceforth, the vice president of Ghana must never do any foreign politicians or officials, unwarranted favours, which go against the constitutional edict, which enjoins all Ghanaians to fight corruption, whenever and wherever they chance upon it. This shabby story has dented his image somewhat – the dissimulation of his over-pampered and clueless aides notwithstanding. It was a grave error of judgment on his part to seek to please the ownership of a foreign company whose actions were damaging to our nation’s economy – and it is crucial therefore that he learns important lessons from this most unfortunate of affairs. A word to the wise…
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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