Wind of Corruption Blowing In Ghana’s Missions (Part 1)

Isn’t it funny a Ghanaian Civil Servant would sell his car to finance the country’s Mission?

Only last week, an Accounting officer of the Brussels Mission, Mr Edward Quansah (Rtd) told the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) that he sold his car to finance the day to day running of the Mission when remittances were delayed. How?

The above statement is coming at a time the main opposition political party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made corruption, its main campaign message and telling its supporters that the government was not doing enough to curb corruption in the country.

In Ghana every corruption case is blamed on a Politician. But with the current disclosures coming out of PAC’s meetings, would it not be right for one to say that instead of blaming politicians, shouldn’t we be taking a closer look at the country's Civil Servants.

Ghana goes to the polls in November, this year with corruption as the main electoral message. The revelations coming out of the PAC meetings is only a tip of the Iceberg. Unfortunately for the government, staff of the country's foreign missions have become so corrupt, news coming out of some of the Missions, is nothing to write home at this stage our political life. The government, innocent of what is going on in the Missions continue to pump in funds to the Missions in addition to the internal generated funds.

A few days ago, it was the South Africa Mission that was in the news with the embezzlement of huge sums of monies meant for the state. This was followed by the Uganda Mission, then Brussels now where next?

Even though the Accounting officers in the Missions are usually singled out as the main culprit to have embezzled the monies, in actual fact the booty is shared among MFA staff with the disgraced Accounting officer, who suffers dismissal, compensated heavily by his or her colleagues.

This week, it is the Washington DC Mission, where corruption is so endemic, a section of the staff believes both the Head of Mission and his deputy are not doing anything about it or they have no clue how to stop it.

An inside source said there is corruption in every sphere of the Mission's day-to-day activity ranging from Health Insurance, Vehicle leasing, vehicle insurance, property insurance, maintenance of state property to even per diem for staff.

Recently, there was a standoff between the Local staff and management over the selection of a Health Insurance company for the local staff. The Local staffs believe the Chancery was forcing them to join an Insurance Company they have rejected on three occasions.

According to the staff, an Accounting officer of the Mission had threatened them with dismissal if they do not agree to join the preferred Insurance Company of the Management.

The staff said they were not surprised they should be threatened with dismissals because apart from that threat, they have also been warned to keep in mind that whatever they see or hear when they come to the office, stays in the office.

The World Cup in Brazil was one programme the Washington DC Mission took advantage of and embezzled a lot of funds; it was no surprise the President at the end of the tournament set up a committee to investigate Ghana's participation but unfortunately, the Washington DC Mission escaped that investigation.

Even though the tournament was in faraway Brazil, the Washington mission spent thousands of dollars of public funds printing T shirts for sale to members of the Ghanaian community with the intent of making profit but because the national team, the Black Stars, performed woefully, the T shirts were not patronized.

How state funds were used for this kind of venture and how the proceeds from the sales were handled and whether the Mission made profit or loss should be investigated but up until now, nobody has rendered account of the public funds used for that venture.

The question is who is keeping the money? How was the money accounted for? The Ghanaian community want this action by the Mission investigated just as the President investigated officials who went to Brazil.

Surprisingly, the Audit team that came from Accra to Audit the accounts of the Mission did not see this and other corrupt practices and gave the Mission a clean sheet of approval.

In July 2015, the President was invited by the Ghanaian Community in Chicago to be part of the Ghana Festival celebrations but unfortunately the President could not honour the invitation but officials of the Mission spend close to $100,000.00 on accommodation and feeding, even though the President was absent.

The $100,000.00, according to insiders, was withdrawn from the Mission's account and deposited in the private account of the then Head of chancery. Why couldn't the money remain in the Mission's account and payments effected from there but had to be withdrawn from the Mission's account and deposited in the Head of Chancery's private account. Since the President was not in Chicago, can the Chancery tell Ghanaians how much the trip to Chicago cost the State with the absence of the President?

This is how Civil Servants are milking the state abroad while blaming the government for corruption in the administration of the country. With November just around the corner, the President must take the revelations from the PAC serious and stop the malfeasance in the Missions.