Nolle prosequi: Legal but Impolitic

The whole country is following very closely how alleged corruption involving former government officials, senior party members and even judicial officials, is being handled by our legal system. The case of the Republic versus Dufuor and seven others has become a flashpoint.

As we all know, the state has decided to cut its losses, collect 60% of what was stolen from the taxpayer and let the eight people involved walk free while there is still a 40% liability on the books. I have heard the refrain of “go after the money “and that if any of these individuals are jailed, there will be further expenses in looking after them, etc. I would proffer that they are not going to be jailed at the equivalent of the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Corruption, theft, rampant dishonesty, and general moral turpitude have become so common that people consider these behaviors to be within the law. We have become a country where individual responsibility for actions is almost nonexistent. Excuses and rationalizations are the order of the day.

My understanding is that the Attorney-General‘s decision is perfectly legal, and that he has the discretionary authority, which allows him to make the decision that he has announced to the public.

Mr. Dufour is a former primary NDC presidential aspirant, and that many of the former public officials being tried currently belong to the current opposition party. Others have been jailed in cases involving less money than is at issue in this case. Politically, this decision may be costly to the NDC.

It may be legal, but letting these criminals off the hook with a partial refund to the state does not constitute justice or punishment in the eyes of the ordinary citizen. There are also individuals involved in regulatory failures who are not accounted for. Then there are pastors and chiefs lining up to beg on behalf of any miscreant who is in trouble.

Ghanaians want to see people who abuse their fiduciary responsibilities severely punished. If they are not punished, this conduct will continue and the ordinary citizen will pay for it in the form of schools under trees, poorly equipped hospitals, and craters in our roads, to mention just a few of the burdens that we bear because of the abuse of fiduciary responsibilities by individuals who are voted into office or appointed to high positions by those to whom we have entrusted the power to appoint guardians of the public purse.

In Singapore, where the fight against corruption soon after independence was fierce, Lee Kwan Yew made it clear that what worked in eliminating corruption from public office, was severe punishment of high officials under the law.

I am of the view that with this partial refund of the stolen money, these eight individuals or at least some of them who are more culpable than others should have received a custodial sentence. If not, collecting the loot without consequences will not help the fight against corruption.

The ordinary man on the street sees it in the following way: A man steals six goats, sells two of them and is caught with four and returns them to the owner after he is caught. That is no punishment. It does not even constitute restitution because clearly the goats were not his to begin with.

Integrity should be the central principle of all public actions. It is important to retrieve stolen monies and the state will derive some short-term benefit from this. However, if we want to change public behavior and wrestle successfully with the virus of corruption in our national bloodstream, then punishment should be our priority in this early stage of the war against public theft.

We must do better. The current drivers of our politics (NDCNPP) cannot see their way clearly because they have built this system, which has failed us. It’s no longer about being beyond reproach. It’s about not being as corrupt as the other party.

Prof (Med) Thaddeus P Ulzen
Physician, Author and
Chairperson of the Progressive Alliance for Ghana (PAG) a neo-Nkrumaist political party.

@PAG_Nkrumaists
www.proalliancegh.org
[email protected]
www.tpmanusulzen.com