FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: A POWERFUL WEAPON AGAINST CORRUPTION;

On Friday March 22, 2013 in a meeting with journalists at the Flagstaff house, President Mahama made a profound and preeminent declaration when he said “ I have no fear of the right to information bill……….it is not a monster and I think Parliament should pass it.” Indeed Mr. President you should be commended for taking such a stand and I venture to even comment that your stand has historical significance because for the past 10 years, the Right to information bill has been languishing in the halls of parliament and with the parliamentarians in both the Kuffuor and Atta Mills administrations exhibiting no real conviction or courage to pass it.

President Mahama gave his government's assurance and commitment to ensuring the passage of the right to information bill and the broadcasting bill. That the passage of the Freedom of Information Act remains elusive to the Ghanaian parliament – even the new one that has just been sworn in and is very worrying for the anti-corruption agenda in the country. Whereas this article does not intend to indict our honorable legislators for their failure to pass this all-important bill, we at the Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium (CAFAC) wish to carefully elucidate the very obvious advantages such a law will bring to our democratic governance dispensation and leave discerning readers to make their own conclusions.

It was President Johnson the American president who when commenting on the passage of the freedom of information act in the US said “nobody should have the possibility to make secret those decisions that can be published.” The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1966 during the same period of the fight for the civil rights of our extended family who found themselves in America because of slavery. After relentless pressure from citizens and journalists, this groundbreaking legislation was finally passed and not long thereafter it made a triumphant impact during the Watergate affair leading to the resignation of a sitting president - Nixon.

So what are the benefits you and I as Ghanaians stand to gain from a Freedom of Information Law?

1) First the right of Ghanaians to know what our governments, public authorities and private corporations are doing and how public resources are allocated is an enabling power to fight corruption. This is because, corruption flourishes in darkness and secrecy so any process aimed at opening governments and government organizations to public scrutiny is very likely to advance anti-corruption efforts.

2) Second the Freedom of Information Law will promote transparency in government and that will lead directly to the reduction of corruption in government. To explain this point, we shall use the corruption equation which states that:

Corruption = Monopoly + Freedom in decision making(Discretionary Power) – Transparency

This corruption equation basically states that the corruption potential or propensity is formed by three factors which are

a) If the state establishes a monopoly over the sources and use of resources and leaves no room or very little room for competition. If there is an excessive extet of intervention in the economic process. If there are too many permits, licenses, concessions, subsidies etc

b) If the decision making process is highly subjective and leaves decision makers with supreme discretionary powers based on their whims and caprices.

c) Finally if there is low degree of transparency in the decuision making process

Clearly more transparency will reduce the left side of the corruption equation which means a lowering of corruption.

3) Third, information is the oxygen of democracy so that if the acts of those who govern are shrouded in secrecy and mystery, the people of Ghana will not know what is happening and that will hamper their participation in the democratic process. As I have always stated “you cannot play any meaningful part in a process you do not know about or understand.”

4) Fourth, a bad government needs secrets to survive. The secrets enable waste, inefficiencies, ineffectiveness and abuse of power to survive and prosper. There is a certain impunity that enables non-performing governments, public and even private institutions to continue to hold sway over the people because the people are basically kept in darkness and ignorance. The Freedom of Information act is a powerful weapon against this culture of impunity.

5) Fifth, in a veiled way one can make a connection between the impoverishment of a nation and freedom of information. In the observation of the novel price winner Amartya Sen, it is hard to find serious famine in a country with a democratic government and a free press. This is because information enables people to investigate the acts of government and it is the base of proper and informed actions about these acts. Where openness and trust prevails, there is well-being and abundance and conversely, where there is no openness and trust there is a lowering of living standards and the people will suffer.

To test the hypothesis that ignorance and lack of access to information leads to poverty, I decided to investigate the world's poorest countries by looking at the United Nation's Human Development Report of 2011 and the list which is produced below is very revealing.

World's Poorest Countries

The good news is that Ghana is not on the list but the bad news is that I don't think that should give us any reason for even a modicum of complacency.

6) When the FOI act is passed Ghanaians will be able to attend meetings of public agencies, have the right to demand and view reports of operations and monitor their performance. This ability to monitor government and its activities invariably results in some form of honest government – it will not eradicate corruption but it will make it very dishonorable. Scandals in government will be exposed and corrupt public officials will be disgraced in the public arena and forced to resign.

Ghanaians will be able to ask questions on why something is done or not done and incompetent public officials will be exposed and their chances of reelection will be severely hampered. The time will finally arrive when politicians will be voted into power not because of popularity but because of performance. Resignations of corrupt public officials will become

Commonplace because of public outcry – now they are no longer in the dark and they can cry for answers and clamour for positive change.

7) Even academia will benefit and their research into government activities with real and authentic data will enable the country to find practical solutions to many of its problems. Students doing research can request and receive original data – reports, budgets, financial statements, minutes of meetings and even investment portfolios. They will be dealing with reality and so their recommended solutions will also be real and have more realistic chances of success.

8) Last but not the least, in fact arguably perhaps even more telling for obvious reasons is the fact that budgets (revenue and expenditures) of any organization that is run with the Ghanaian taxpayer's cedis will become open to public scrutiny so that waste, abuse, misuse and outright stealing of public funds will be questioned and exposed. The public will be able to call for the punishment and recoupment of money from corrupt officials who engage in gross mismanagement of funds.

From the cumulative force of all the above outlined advantages, one is at a loss and baffled by the continued foot dragging in parliament. I have been struggling to find a reason why the Freedom of Information Act has become bottlenecked in the Ghanaian parliament? I want to believe that our parliamentarians are well meaning statesmen who want what is best for Mother Ghana. For those who think there may be a sinister motive behind the impasse, as the saying goes “everyone is entitled to their opinion.” Ultimately all the second guessing will be inconsequential if Parliament heeds the moral persuasion advice given by President John Mahama. May be with the President's intervention, the proverbial messiah is finally here to take us to the promised land.

We wait in anxiety and hope for the best.!!!!!!!!!

The writer is Hector O. Boham (President and Co-Founder of Corruption and fraud Audit Consortium (CAFAC) Ghana Ltd.

You can write to him at 25 Dogwood Court, Cliffwood, New Jersey, 07721 USA Or reach him by email at [email protected] or [email protected]

CAFAC will host the premier Ghana Fraud and Corruption Summit in the fall of this year (2013).

Attendance is free. For more details contact Hector Boham.