Posted: Wednesday, November 18, 2009     Source: Daily Graphic

Govt Officials Flout Laws - Says Ghana Integrity Initiative

Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) says key government ministers and appointees have violated the laws of the country by not declaring their assets as expected.

Launching the 2009 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in Accra yesterday, the Executive Secretary of the GII, Mr Vitus Azeem, said the failure or inability of the Auditor-General to publish the names of public officials who had or had not complied with the Asset Declaration Law was worrying, while President Mills had to be able to compel his own ministers to comply with his directives.

On assumption of office in January 2009, one of President Mills’s key directive to his ministers was for them to declare their assets within six months.

As of June 2009, a Daily Graphic publication said records at the Auditor General’s Department indicated that only 35 officials out of the more than 70 ministers, aside key appointees, had declared their assets.

Mr Azeem stressed that the assets declaration legislation was an effective anti-corruption tool and everything had to be done to enforce it.

The launch also afforded the opportunity for the public to interact with board members and the executives of the GII, while raising issues of concern.

The key concern of the public was the effectiveness of the Assets Declaration Law in addressing corruption.

A response from Mr Azeem and a contribution by a former Executive Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Theophilus Cudjoe, indicated that parliamentarians were not keen on passing amendments to the Assets Declaration regime that would help check corruption by public officials.

Mr Azeem said civil society organisations proposed changes to the Assets Declaration Law in relation to aspects that prevented the Auditor General from verifying the contents and public disclosure.

However, when the proposed changes were forwarded through the Auditor General to Parliament, the sub-committee in charge returned the proposals and asked for a review of the recommendations by civil society organisations before its passage.

Mr Cudjoe also admitted being privy to information to the effect that public officials were not keen on the new provisions in the Assets Declaration regime, which would make the law effective.

Another issue raised by the public was whether the government’s sponsorship of 400 Muslims to undertake this year’s Hajj did not border on corruption.

Mr Azeem said it was necessary for the public to question the basis of the government’s support to the 400 Moslems, as well as whether the funds expended were sanctioned by Parliament and the criteria for the selection of the 400 pilgrims.

He said questioning it was not a matter of religious intolerance because it was vital for accountability.
Mr Azeem said the CPI was the best authority on the level of the perceived corruption in any country globally.

In Ghana the index was derived from seven surveys, that is, the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment by the African Development Bank (AFDB), the Country Risk Service and Country Forecast by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the Bertelsmann Transformation Index by the Bertelsmann Foundation (BF) 2009, Country Policy and Institutional Assessment by the World Bank (CPIA-WB) 2008, Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2008 and the Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2009.

Ghana scored 3.9 on the index and came 69th out of 180 countries surveyed globally, maintaining its score and rank for 2008.

It ranked seventh among African countries and performed below countries such as Botswana with 5.6, Mauritius with 5.4, Cape Verde with 5.1, Seychelles with 4.8, South Africa with 4.7 and Namibia with 4.5.

Mr Azeem said although the country performed better than 40 other African countries covered in the study, one could not boast about the country’s performance.

"Ghana’s performance is obviously not satisfactory as one does not expect it to remain stagnant, scoring below five for over 10 years since its inclusion in the CPI," he stated.

He said it was a pointer to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government that Ghana needed to move upwards from where the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government brought the country to.