Corruption Fight, The Hong Kong Approach

Institutions mandated to fight corruption in Ghana are on course, doing their very best in dealing with the canker. In an article, I authored, titled Make Office of The Special Prosecutor Independent, I indicated that the Hong Kong Approach of fighting corruption seems replicable in our Country.

Their fight was a three-pronged approach of law enforcement, prevention, and community education. There was an effective collaboration from the communities to augment the efforts of the state.

In Ghana, law enforcement is a challenge for the agencies charged to apply the law ultimately. The law enforcement machinery is kaput. There are a series of corruption and corruption-related issues but these agencies derelict on their duties. The framework for law enforcement is not operational to some extent. The rule of law procedures is flouted on many occasions. Violating the parameters set will negatively affect the determination in fighting corruption.

There are numerous law enforcement agencies in the country that will help apply the law. The fact is these agencies are disintegrated and that has been a bane in eliminating this endemic. The agencies that need to enforce the laws of the country must operate and act in an organised manner. There are many instances where wrongdoings were discovered in the Auditor-General and Accountant-General’s reports but punitive actions were not taken against the culprits. To replicate the Hong Kong approach, the state needs to assess or evaluate the performance of law enforcement agencies and take caution in its strategy. The agencies must be integrated to form a formidable unit to uniformly enforce the law.

The second tier of their approach was prevention of the canker. How will corruption be prevented? This seemingly simple question needs thought-provoking answers.

Corruption is like a demon as suggested by the current Vice President of Ghana. Preventing the demon from its devastating activities is a taxing task. For the next decade, 2020-2030, the country can draw a pragmatic plan to combat corruption. The first half of the decade can take the form of a top-down approach of preventing corruption while the second half takes a bottom-up approach.

According to an American journalist, Howard French as quoted by The New York Times, “in each African country, the formula for enrichment, being Corrupt (emphasis mine) differs. In Senegal, World Bank officials have said that Government imports of rice, the staple food, have constituted a major source of unaccounted for revenue for ruling party leaders for years. In Congo, top officials and their relatives sign deals that mortgage the heavily indebted country’s oil earnings in advance [to 2012], in exchange for quick cash.

In Nigeria, the Government awards so-called “liftings contracts” to its political friends that amount to little more than gifts of handsome commissions on oil contracts. Based on realities like these, a confidential report prepared in 1995by the French Foreign Ministry warned of the “criminalization of sub-Saharan Africa” by the elites.” The prevention of corruption is a difficult undertaking. Public servants use classmates, family members, and acquaintances as a conduit to achieve their goals.

The content of the narrative above is not different in Ghana. There are many issues of corruption infused in government contracts in procuring loans, aircraft, agricultural equipment, etc. The intricate nature of corruption will make its prevention particularly difficult as state actors meander in activities that form the basis for its sprouting. The Parliament of Ghana has been a culprit in the prevention and enforcement of laws in the corruption fight. Parliament has the power to enforce laws and enact laws to prevent corruption but it has been lenient in doing its job.

Community Education, the third tier of the approach adopted in Hong Kong should take the bottom-up approach as I proposed which should begin in the second half of the decade in the new strategic plan to fight corruption. Community Education cannot take any serious form and have a deep impact if those to initiate it are perceived to be extremely corrupt. The government must cleanse itself with the same efforts from the agencies in charge of fighting corruption before embarking on any behaviour-changing community education. A “prostitute” cannot advise her progenies to desist from an act she finds rewarding herself.

In utilizing the Hong Kong “remedy” of community involvement through community education, the cleansing must begin from the top. Community Education needs to be a two-tier approach. The top-tier and the down-tier; with the top-tier taking the form of training and seminars for law enforcement agents while the down-tier begins at schools, developed in our curricula. It should also begin in religious groupings namely, Churches and Mosques.

But what sort of education must be given to people who have gone through rigorous training and retraining before their engagements as law enforcers? Education perhaps may take the form of re-learning new and global standards and models for fighting corruption. The current systems may be out-of-date, making their usage difficult, by producing little outcomes.

The down-tier, if it is done properly, will help yield results later as a clean system needs to be built from the bottom. The people who will assume leadership positions in their prime should know the dire consequences of corruption.

Religious organisations essentially must involve in this endeavour to complement the efforts of the state which will take place in schools. Churches have a moral duty to change society. But in the opinion of the public, these churches are corrupted, more corrupt than the state institutions. Where can we seek “moral asylum”? The mosque too must instil discipline in the people it grooms to act as responsible citizens. Can these religious institutions be trusted when their prior character-shaping activities have failed? The corrupt officials have no background peculiar to a particular religion. Well, let the state try it with a new approach.

Corruption is analogous to crime, unemployment, or the demon, it cannot be eradicated completely but can be reduced to minimal levels. The approach used in Hong Kong can provide us with useful lessons to develop a suitable model for our fight against corruption.

Emmanuel Kwabena Wucharey

Economics Tutor - Kintampo SHS.