Prosecute Those With Adverse Findings at PAC Sitting — CJA

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure group in Ghana, is calling for the immediate prosecution of persons against whom adverse findings have been made by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the country's Parliament.

It further called for an institutional reform to better fund and empower accountability institutions in the country including the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It additionally called for measures to protect those agencies from executive interference.

At a news conference in Accra yesterday to react to the startling revelations made at the public hearings of the PAC, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a leading member of the CJA who presented a statement on behalf of the CJA, said it was obvious that ethical and professional standards in the country's public services had collapsed, citing the absolute failure in the accountability systems to expose, punish and correct criminal misapplication of public resources over the last five years.

"Of course, not every public servant is incompetent or grossly dishonest. However, the level of failure exhibited suggests that many in the senior echelons of the public service are indeed corrupt or incompetent."

He added that a case in point appeared to be the solidarity which the management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) had shown in halting live broadcasts of the PAC hearings.

Mr Pratt who was flanked by Mr Ato Ahwoi of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Alhaji Ahmend Ramadan of the People's National Convention (PNC), both activists of the CJA, called on the GBC as the public broadcaster to accord the sittings the same priorities that it assigned the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC).

Mr Pratt who is also the Publicity Chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), said the President's commitment to tackling corruption was conclusively exposed "as cynical misdirection," stressing that "senior appointees of the Kufuor Administration were aware of this massive looting for several years and took absolutely no action.

"Certainly, the disgusting display of sudden wealth on the part of NPP leaders and especially presidential aspirants is entirely consistent with massive looting,"

He said the political leadership had fundamentally failed and publicly violated their social contract with Ghanaians and there was therefore no basis to entrust them with institutions and resources of state.

"Why should wretchedly impoverished citizens pay taxes just for the governing elite to simply pocket in the face of the untold hardships confronting Ghanaians?" he queried.

"We are as disgusted as most Ghanaians that former NPP ministers actually have the temerity to offer themselves for public office despite the monumental failure of their government," he added.

Story by Sebastian Syme