“One-Stop-Shop”—One Department’s Strategy To Combat Corruption In Ghana

One recurring theme for the 2015 New Year message cycle has been the apparent rampant corruption and plain theft that go unpunished. In their New Year message, the Catholic Bishops Conference asked the government and the public to do more to root out “the twin cancer of bribery and corruption” and lamented the inadequacy of current intervention. The Reverend Father Andrew Campbell added his voice to this plea in his New Year message calling on Ghanaians to “vigorously fight corruption in the country.” In a similar vein, Bishop Osei-Bonsu ventured that corruption poses “a threat to peace.”

That is why it is significant that one government department notorious for graft, corruption, extortion and theft, the Lands Commission—what with multiple land sales, lost documents, foot-dragging to extort money in order to advance your paperwork—is instituting the strategy of “One-stop-shop” to streamline clients' paperwork, but more importantly to remove practices that breed corruption. The memo for the reform has five key points:

1. Improve the process of land registration—Reduce the turn-around time in registration

2. Reduce client interference in registration—Automate the process

3. Integrate re-engineered business processes—Reduce customer frustrations

4. Simplify payment of fees—Eliminate/reduce duplication of work

5. Apply technology in business processes—Improve working environment.

It is unclear how computerizing the processes would have any significant impact on “business processes” without changing the fundamental culture of the people working at the department and the complicit public who pay the bribes. Mind you, land registration has occurred successfully around the globe for millennia--from the time of the Pharaohsto the ancient Rome to the 20th century without computers. Suffice it to say, though, that at least someone in the department has the awareness to do something about improving the processes that engender the corrupt practices that occur under the noses of everybody.

Ghanaians are rightfully frustrated by the impunity with which bribe-takers and fraudstersengage in their reprehensible behaviors as though there were no governance in the country. Nowhere is the impunity from punishmentis moreblatant and disgraceful than at our ports of entry, particularly at the Kotoka International Airport. While we pride ourselves in advertising Kotoka as the Gateway to Africa, we welcome our visitors with embarrassing behaviors witnessed only in our part of the world. You arrive after a 6-10-hour flight at Kotoka and the immigration officials begin extorting money from you while stamping your passport-“deɛnnawodi fi aburokyirebrɛɛ me?”-what did you bring me from abroad, as though someone had sent you on a trip. It doesn't stop there: at the creaky carousel, a bevy of hangers-on ostensibly paid porters rush to give you a hand and then ask you to insert foreign bills in your passport to facilitate your exit.

Where is the management of the airport? The solution to the Kotoka International Airport disgrace is very simple:

1. Eliminate all the porters at the baggage claim area

2. Anyone who has no business at the airport should not be at the airport

3. If customs have luggage inspections, it should be clear what items attract duty and how much. These should be clearly displayed on the monitors so those who carry dutiable items can pay for them.

4. A message should be announced on the PA system every five minutes when planes arrive as follows: “It is illegal to bribe any public official at this airport. Report any solicitation of money or goods to the airport police.”

Of course, this assumes that the government and for that matter those who are running the airport will exact the appropriate punishment when they receive reports of that nature.

You can multiply the disgrace at the airport in any institutions where public officials instead of SERVING THE PUBLIC, choose to be bribed before they perform the duties for which they receive salaries.

In a country that is data-averse, we resort to anecdotes, rumors and sometimes even plain unfounded innuendos when we talk about official misconduct. But a government that ignores rumors, innuendoes and loud allegations opens itself up as being complicit in this behavior.

Multiple organizations, among them, the Police, the Port Authority, Internal Revenue Authority, the Controller and Accountant General, the Lands Commission, SNNIT, and believe it or not the Judiciary,are rumored to be rotten through and through.

When rumours run rampant that the wife of a high government official has purchased 40 plots of land that belong to the government and the rumor is not dispelled with evidence, the government loses the trust of the people and all credibility.

When Ghanaians scream about corruption, we also forget that weare all part of the problem;we are complicit and contribute to this culture of theft. Corruption, fraud, graft, bribery and theft, can be eliminated if ordinary citizens refused to cooperate. No one can resolve our problems unless we exercise our citizenship by calling out those who are breaking the law. Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you are stopped by the police for an infraction, let him write you a citation and take the time to go to court to defend yourself. DON'T GIVE HIM A BRIBE.

2. If you go to an office and someone skips the line because somebody knows someone, MAKE SOME NOISE and refuse to allow it.

3. If you see someone taking a bribe and you have a camera, take a picture and broadcast it on social media or send it to your friends through Whatsup to shame them if there is no recourse to punish them.

4. When you arrive at the Kotoka International Airport, be patient and aim at giving no one any tip or bribe. If your luggage is the issue, ask for the duties roster and refuse to pay any bribe.

All this means is that as a culture, we have got to learn not to tolerate official impunity. The idea that “Obiaradidin'adwuma ho,” everyone benefits from his/her occupation is a cultural aphorism that needs re-thinking.

If all ministries and other agencies did a rethinking of their processes like the Lands Commission and actually implemented a “One-Stop-Shop” ethos in providing SERVICE to the public (no more go and come), grateful Ghanaians take notice. That means Minsters of State and their Principal Secretaries have the responsibility to MANAGE our affairs and help govern.

Ultimately though, the onus is on President John Mahama. The citizenry must have confidence that he is running an ethical government. Would he leave a nightmarish legacy marked by graft, incompetence or one that we'll all recall with fond memories? Data or no data, the fact that there is a loud outcry about corruption and theft that go unpunished ought to wake up the President. The million dollar question is, can he do it? Or does he care?