The Fight Against Corruption : Who Is Winning – CSOs Or Gov’t?

Corruption has become deep-seated in the Ghanaian society today. Since independence, many of the brutal revolutions in the nation's history, particularly during the early days of the reign of former President Jerry John Rawlings, have been carried out ostensibly to weed out corruption in the country.

Successive governments have also tried to curb the canker in the country but the more they try to contain it, the more acts of corruption are perpetrated, especially by government officials.

The degenerating situation and the seeming lack of moral and political will to fight corruption have led to the country being ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world.

Ghana's rankings on Corruption Perception Indexes (CPIs) over the last few years, beginning from 2013, have not been encouraging.

In 2013, the West African nation was ranked the third most perceived corrupt state among 129 countries with free press in a report issued by Gallup.

Ghana, in 2015, was ranked the third most perceived corrupt country in the world in a report by Gallup. Ghana was also ranked the second most perceived corrupt country in Africa in another report by Transparency International, a global rating agency.

The Government of Ghana has consistently questioned the credibility of such rankings, alleging that opposition political parties may be the ones sponsoring those rating agencies to publish such damning reports.

Corruption Revelations
However, recent corruption revelations go to confirm the reports of such rating agencies, discrediting the assertions of government that the opposition political parties want to tarnish the image of government in the fight against corruption.

Corruption-related issues such as contracts government went into or gave out at inflated prices, like the AMERI deal which was aimed at purchasing plants to improve power supply in the country, the rebranding of 116 Metro Mass Transit buses, the construction and commissioning of public schools, fraud in government institutions among others, have served as evidence of the unbridled corruption in the country.

The country's justice delivery system has also been tagged as corrupt following last year's exposé on corruption in the judiciary by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Tiger Eye PI, making the fight against corruption more difficult than ever.

AMERI Deal
The AMERI power deal is one of the latest issues bordering on serious high-profile corruption and the failure to ensure value for money for the people of Ghana by those manning state affairs.

The Government of Ghana in the AMERI deal, described by an award-winning newspaper in Norway, VG, as “perpetuating fraud on Ghanaians”, sought to acquire ten gas power turbines at a cost of $510 million.

Interestingly, it was revealed that the same plants could have been acquired at $220 million from American electric conglomerate, General Electric (GE).

The AMERI Group, an alleged 'dubious' company owned by His Royal Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, a member of the ruling family in Dubai, played a middleman role in the deal in 'secret' but was reported to the Ghanaian populace as the company directly supplying the turbines to the country, even though it later emerged that METKA, a Greek corporation, was the main company behind the deal.

The arrangement was to enable the African and Middle East Resources Investment (AMERI) Group to provide the West African nation with the turbines desperately needed to help solve the protracted energy crisis that has lasted nearly four years, collapsing several businesses and leading to thousands of people losing their jobs overnight.

But several months before the deal which was 'secretly' signed between the Ministry of Power (represented by the then sector minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor and Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Dominic Ayine) and Umar Farooq Zahoor, the then Chief Executive of AMERI Group, Dr Mohammed Amin-Adam, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), raised concerns over the deal, saying that it had no value for money for the state.

In spite of the concerns raised and the speculations that some government officials—apparently those at the Ministry of Power—stood to benefit from the deal at the expense of Ghana, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, which touts itself as a socialist democratic government, went ahead to sign the deal behind closed-doors in the absence of journalists who were to serve as watchdogs.

Days later, Dr Donkor denied publications suggesting that the AMERI power deal was signed with a dubious company and at an inflated cost of $510 million.

When he was not able to fulfil his promise of ending the power crisis the country has been experiencing for nearly four years, he resigned from his position.

GH¢3.6m Bus Rebranding
Just as the controversy over the AMERI power deal was subsiding, another revelation of a shady deal in relation to the rebranding of some 116 buses purchased by government for the Metro Mass Rapid Transit (MMRT) took centre stage in the media.

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The rebranding of each of the buses, according to the 2015 annual report on the Petroleum Funds, cost GH¢31,457.28, totalling GH¢3,649,044.75 for the 116 buses.

This amount was paid by the Ministry of Transport from the Petroleum Funds.

However, it was revealed later, after the Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, raised questions regarding the figures, that the said amount had been inflated as checks on the actual cost of rebranding showed that the total cost was rather GH¢116,600.

But the Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor, in her response to the claim by the Minority Leader, said she did not have the details of the rebranding at hand and promised to make it available to the House at a later date.

Meanwhile, a detailed pro-forma invoice for the rebranding of the buses revealed that stickers on each bus cost GH¢11, 000.

The pro-forma invoice, dated 17th July, 2015 and signed by the Accounts Officer of Smarttys Management and Productions, the company that undertook the project and copied to the Ministry of Transport, put the total cost of branding for each bus at GH¢30,420.

The public has however criticised government for spending such a huge sum on these buses especially at a time the country is grappling with several challenges.

Government's Reaction
Government, in response to the bus branding saga, directed the Attorney General, through the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, “to review the contract and associated payment(s).”

A letter to the Attorney General dated December 17, 2015 asked her to revert to the Chief of Staff with her findings by close of day, December 22, 2015.

The Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor, tendered her resignation barely a day after the Attorney General presented the report to the Chief of Staff.

The report also directed Smarttys Management and Productions to refund GH¢1.9 million but it is unclear whether the money will be refunded, considering the fact that similar directives in previous cases are yet to be adhered to by people who ripped off the state in shady deals and contracts.

Civil Society Organisations' (CSOs') Reaction

According to the Country Manager of Star-Ghana, a Civil Society Organisation, Ibrahim Tanko-Amidu, government's commitment to fighting corruption is not encouraging.

“The results haven't been too encouraging. There is still a lot of room for improvement,” he said.

He said numerous challenges including the lack of information on government transactions, cultural setting and behaviour as well as the quick branding of government's critics with political colours have impacted negatively on the fight against corruption.

“There is no right to information act and so it is difficult to gather evidence needed to prosecute action against corruption (sic),” he said.

Mr Tanko-Amidu said more education needs to be done to sensitise the citizenry on the effects of corruption and the need for them to go beyond complaining to reporting such cases.

“This is because we have been talking about corruption in very general terms. People don't realise that when you go to hospital and the drugs are not there or there's no bed for you, it's as a result of the corruption you've been silent about; or when your child goes to school and there is no teacher to teach or there are no teaching materials, it's as a result of corruption and not that it is one wicked teacher sitting somewhere who doesn't want to teach,” he added.

He said educating the public on corruption is not an end to a means but the provision of avenues people can use to fight corruption.

“I am talking about strengthening the legal and regulatory frameworks. You need to strengthen EOCO, PARLIAMENT, CHRAJ and pass the right to information law to enable citizens access information.

Civil Society needs to be strengthened to enable them join hands in the fight against corruption,” he stated.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Melvin Tarlue