Two former Majority leaders in Parliament
have called for a bold measure to deal with issues of corruption which
they say have become a stumbling block to the country's development.
Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who served as the Minority and the
Majority Leader in the Fourth and Fifth parliaments, respectively, said
there was the need for a review of the aspect of the Criminal Code that
defined corruption as a misdemeanor to make the law more biting.
His colleague former Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP)
for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, was of the view that as a country “we
need to move from rhetorics to action in the fight against corruption”.
The two former leaders in Parliament were contributing to a
statement made on the floor of Parliament to commemorate World
Anti-Corruption Day which falls on December 9 every year.
The statement was made by the MP for Biakoye, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi
Banduah, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the African Parliamentarians
Network Against Corruption (APNAC).
Mr Bagbin's contribution
In his contribution, Mr Bagbin explained that the definition of
corruption in the Criminal Code in its current form was not enough to
ensure that a stiffer punishment was meted out to offenders in order to
support efforts to curb corruption in the country.
"Corruption is a cancer that needs courage, fortitude and will power
to exorcise, particularly in developing countries where systems are
non-existent and institutions are so weak, which make the individual go
to society with low ethics, principles and norms,” he said.
He said many efforts had gone into the fight against corruption,
adding, however, that some of those efforts were what he called
"hush-hush", which had no sustainability.
Mr Bagbin, who is also a former Minister of Water Resources, Works
and Housing, as well as Health, noted that debates during the
Consultative Assembly that drafted the 1992 Constitution indicated that
there had been a bold effort to put a structure in place to fight
corruption.
He said in the Directive Principles of State Policy, every Ghanaian
had been called on to combat corruption but, unfortunately, even the
processes to get people into positions of trust "are all riddled with
corruption".
"And so at the end of the day, the person is corrupted and he finds it difficult to come out of that situation," he added.
Mr Bagbin said Parliament had the responsibility to lead society in
the fight against corruption but stated that the model of Parliament
that the country opted for, which was even perceived as a department of
the Executive, could not lead the combat against corruption.
He called on all to support the noise being made on corruption to
conscientise Ghanaians and build their capacities to fight against the
canker in the country.
Unfortunately, Mr Bagbin said, the laws of the country were different
from the concept, adding that the law only talked about bribery and
defined it as a misdemeanor, which meant a petty offence.
"And so with all the noise and investigations by the police, when you
take the case to court a judge is compelled to apply the law, which is a
misdemeanor,"' he said.
"We must change that law; we must amend the Criminal Offences Act to
truly reflect the definition of the maker of the statement on the floor
today. It is an abuse of public trust for private gain," he added.
He said the call on political parties to submit their accounts after
general election should also be extended to individual candidates to
know about their sources of money and justify their expenditure.
Mr Bagbin hinted that a National Anti-Corruption Action Plan would
soon be laid before Parliament after some technical issues had been
considered and expressed the hope that when the document was placed
before the House, members would make an input to make it better.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah
For his part, Papa Owusu-Ankomah said Parliament must use its
oversight responsibility over the ministries, departments and agencies
as a tool to fight against corruption.
He stated, however, that Parliament had a long way to go in efforts
at fighting against corruption and urged the various sector committees
to continue to exercise their oversight responsibilities, even after
budgets for the MDAs had been approved for appropriation.
He said although the country had so many laws against corruption,
there was no will to implement them to uproot the canker from society.
He said it was unfortunate that public officers who did what was right were maligned by people who ought to know better.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah said petty corruption had become the order of the
day, as people now believed that they could not get admission for their
children and wards in schools or get employment without paying their way
through.
He said some people even believed that they could gain admission to
the universities and pay their way through to get first class honours,
asking, "What society are we building? Let us, in everything we do,
fight against corruption. It is Ghana that is suffering."
Papa Owusu-Ankomah lamented that public officers who did the right
thing were described by their people as being wicked and urged those
people not to be undaunted, since their efforts would be rewarded in
future.
Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Banduah
In his statement, Mr Bandua had urged MPs to be alive to their
responsibilities and rise up to the challenge in the exercise of their
oversight responsibilities if they were to make a positive impact in the
fight against corruption.
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