Parliament Must Lead Fight Against Corruption - To Justify Ex-gratia Payments & Salaries

A friend emailed yesterday (5/4/2013) to say she hoped I would add my voice to the millions of Ghanaians condemning the  "vulgar ex-gratia payments MPs are receiving. Ghanaian mothers and babies are dying due to lack of equipment and poor transport infrastructure while these people shamelessly take money they don't deserve."


I wrote back to say that I had actually written  against it in the past - until I realised a few years ago, that our nation was literally 'owned' by a few powerful and wealthy individuals, some even foreign, who 'controlled' many of our leaders.


In my view, the most effective way to prevent  the powerful  few who seek control over our elected leaders - whichever political party is in  power -  from dominating our democratic nation,  is to make sure that  the honest ones amongst  members of Parliament (and the executive) can live comfortably on their salaries, and also be able to leave office with a resettlement package that gives them a comfortable retirement.


So pay them well,  we must, alas - for the sake of the sustenance of Ghanaian democracy.


If we fail to pay members of Parliament (and the executive) well, some of them might  end up  being bought by vested interests. And that cannot be good for our nation and its people, can it? It is that simple.


It is alleged by some,  for example,  that one of the reasons Vodafone was successful in taking  over Ghana Telecom, was because they paid the majority side in Parliament at the time US$5,000 each -  apparently for staying up late to vote for approval of the agreement by Parliament.


At a time of economic hardship for many, one can understand the sense of outrage felt by  millions of ordinary Ghanaians, when it comes to the   issue of ex-gratia payments recently made to parliamentarians and members of the executive.


However, as long as the constitutional provisions  referring to the subject remain  as they  are at present, we must let our heads rule our hearts,  when it comes to the thorny  issue of ex-gratia payments to members of Parliament and members of the executive.


We must never forget that there are always powerful vested  interests, which  constantly seek to influence legislation and the formulation of government policy in their favour - even to the detriment of ordinary people and the Ghanaian nation-state.


That is why, for example,   today Ghana is  losing  billions of dollars of potential revenue from the production of oil.


Those who negotiated those one-sided oil agreements   did not insist on production-sharing agreements  with  foreign oil companies.


And for their part,  those who signed them,   happily  agreed  to agreements stipulating royalty payments to  Ghana -  in order to benefit personally from those inimical  agreements (it is alleged).


So,  today,  we have what are  undoubtedly some of the worst oil agreements on the surface of the planet Earth in place in Ghana. Pity.


In yet another instance of high-level corruption, a sale and purchase agreement for the sale of the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) to a non-existent company, International Aluminium Partners (IAP),   was railroaded through Parliament by the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary majority,  led by the Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, now the Minority Leader in Parliament.


In that shabby and fraudulent deal to rip Ghana off,  those who masterminded it from behind the scenes,  falsely claimed that Norske Hydro of Norway,  and VALE of Brazil, had agreed to buy VALCO.


Yet,  the two companies strenuously denied either being in partnership as International Aluminium Partners,  or ever  agreeing to purchase VALCO.


According to their critics, those behind that IAP fraud were hoping to repeat the sleight of hand that gave two Ghanaians not previously known to US tax authorities   for being wealthy US residents  a stake in oil blocks in oilfields off our shores.


They were  allegedly acting as a front for powerful political interests in Ghana.


Although those two individuals  did not pay even a pesewa upfront, they  ended up with shares in oil blocks in oilfields off our coastline -   merely for helping Kosmos Energy Inc. to  successfully set up in Ghana we are told.


It is because of examples like the above that our nation  must pay members of  the legislature and the executive well -  to prevent  such corrupt,  nation-wrecking and short-changing-Mother-Ghana deals.


If our nation does not  pay those who pass laws in our country,   and those in the executive who formulate  and implement government policies well, some of them will invariably end up doing the bidding of vested interests, to the detriment of ordinary Ghanaians.


For their part, to justify such payments,  parliamentarians  must take the lead in plugging the many holes through which sundry crooks in the  public-sector siphon off taxpayers' money.


Let the relevant Parliamentary Committees  ask the Attorney General's Department to prosecute all those against whom adverse findings have been made in the Auditor General's annual  reports to the  Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.


And to show that they are turning over a new leaf,  and will be more responsible going forward, let Parliament demand that all those alleged to have  stolen public funds,  in the recent scandal to hit  the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), are  swiftly prosecuted and jailed -   to serve as an example to other public servants in Ghana.


The time has come for Ghana's Parliamentarians to find ways of  plugging  all the loopholes through which corrupt  public officials siphon  off taxpayers' money in sundry rip-off schemes.


The Hon. Samuel Okudzato-Ablawkwa's wise suggestion that foreign trips by public servants ought to be vetted, should be acted upon quickly - and Parliament must work with the executive branch of government to do so.

Parliamentarians can  justify the huge sums of  taxpayers' funds expended on them,  by taking the lead in ending public-sector corruption in Ghana. A word to the wise...


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