The Minority Leader in Parliament,
Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has stated that strengthening Parliament’s
financial oversight responsibilities is critical to combating
corruption.
He noted that “the evil enterprise of corruption which has become
cancerous in Ghana”, explaining that Parliament has no option than to
demonstrate extreme concern about the problems and threats that
corruption poses to the stability and security of the country.
He said corruption undermines state institutions and the values of
democracy, as well as cultural and traditional values and the justice
system. According to him these work against sustainable development and
the rule of law.
The Minority Leader made these remarks when he delivered the 2013
Liberty Lecture at the Auditorium of the British Council on Tuesday on
the theme: “The Deficit in Parliamentary Oversight in the Fight against
Corruption.”
He stated that corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by
diverting scarce funds intended for development
which undermine government’s ability to provide basic services such as
potable water, schools, shelter, clinics, toilet facilities, farming
inputs to the populace and thus aggravate inequality and injustice.
He said corruption discourages foreign aid and investment.
“As representatives of the people, Members of Parliament ought to be
extremely concerned about the increasing links between corruption and
the other forms of crime both domestic and international,” he stated.
He explained further that modern Parliaments have seven main
functions including: Representation (of voters); Legislation or
law-making; Power of the purse or Financial Control; Oversight of the
executive and the independent constitutional bodies; Deliberation;
Information transmission or dissemination; and Problem resolution.
“The legitimacy of Parliament is measured by these roles that they
perform and how effective they are.
A strong Parliament is one that has
fair and unbiased rules, a capacity to represent the will of the people
and a reasonable and appropriate role in decision making. A Parliament
with no substantial role in the political process or in making binding
decisions is a toothless, rubber-stamp and inconsequential entity,” he
noted.
Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu also noted that the sharpest tool for
oversight of the Executive is by Parliamentary Committees, as the sheer
volume of business in Parliament makes it impossible to transact every
business in plenary and hence the committee system.
“The committee system offers Parliament one good remedy to the
defects in the democratic process. It offers a way to meet public
demands for Parliaments to be less adversarial and more constructive in
developing solutions for societal problems. The cooperative approach to
politics (at the committee level) enhances public confidence in the
ability of Parliament to resolve common problems,” the Minority Leader
said.
“If members quibble and take partisan and entrenched positions at
Committees as was witnessed at the Public Accounts Committee sittings
last year, that represents a disservice to democracy and inflicts a
severe wound on Parliament’s oversight strength”, he added.
According to him, for Parliamentarians to exercise financial
oversight responsibility over the Executive as well as ensuring that
good governance continues, adding “Parliament and Parliamentarians must
be mindful of the principles of sound management of public affairs and
public resources.”
According to him, Members of Ghana’s Parliament must themselves
understand the principles of responsibility, equality before the law and
urgent need to develop, imbibe and foster a culture of rejection of
corruption and impurity.
Building the capacity of Parliamentarians to exercise this
responsibility, he said is of the urgent necessity, noting that “this is
not a one-year or even four-year effort as it requires much time.”
Any objective assessment of the performance of MPs in Ghana, he said,
would yield the names of Papa OwusuAnkomah, Alban Bagbin, Doe Adjaho
(the current Speaker), W. O. Boafo, Dr. Anthony AkotoOsei, Dr.Kunbuor
the Majority Leader and himself as very knowledgeable and experienced
and prolific debaters and law-makers.
“These people are not instant products, they are men of the days
before yesterday.
The rather high attrition rate of MPs attributable,
primarily to the increasing monetization of our internal party politics
is proving detrimental to parliamentary work. The political parties
have to do serious introspection as this practice of opening the slice
gates at the end of every four years is not advancing our democracy in
any way,” he said.
He noted that it is important for Ghanaians “to acknowledge that the
prevention, detection and fight against corruption and healing, reviving
and uplifting the instruments for good democratic governance is a
responsibility of all stakeholders including groups outside the public
sector such as CSOs, NGOs and community-based organizations.”
“Many people recognize the deficit in the oversight responsibilities
of Parliament. Notwithstanding, correcting the deficiencies in the
system should be a collective responsibility even though, admittedly,
the role of Parliament is, admittedly, very huge. Parliament is capable
of elevating its performance since, as we have seen, a lot of the
problems are self-inflicted,” he added.
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