A fraud and security management consultant, Richard Kumadoe has cautioned political parties against fraud in the crucial general elections on December 7.
He said the political parties and all interested stakeholders should remain vigilant and ensure strict monitoring of the processes to promote transparent, free and fair elections.
Mr Kumadoe told DAILY GUIDE that the country has reached a threshold where any attempt to institutionalize fraud would derail all the developmental gains made so far.
“Political fraud, if not curb or managed, has the potential of degenerating into social vices that negatively affect nations' economic stability, peace and development in Africa,” he declared in Accra at the weekend.
He said “political fraud seems to be on the rise in Africa and other continents after the many upheavals in late 1960s and 1980s which were a direct result of corruption and high political fraud schemes involving high-level politicians and their close associates and relatives.”
According to the analyst, after many reforms to rejuvenate the African continent and the introduction of multiparty democracy to bring accelerated development, the system of politics in Africa has turned into what he termed 'political fraud' which is perpetrated mostly at the highest levels of governance.”
“This is a direct result of inadequate controls and systematic failure of procedures and practices that sovereign nations ought to adhere to which would have been defined by the underlining policies that govern political activities and governance across the continent.”
Mr. Kumadoe said in recent past “several high-level political fraud cases have made headlines involving some state institutions and high-level politicians across the African continents, in which large sums of money have been lost, threatening the stability of nations across Africa.
“The inability of the individual states to retrieve these monies on time or apply appropriate sanctions and control measures that prevent subsequent occurrences has set a bad precedence for the younger generation who has the tendency to rationalise these inappropriate behaviours as normal.”
He said after perpetrating fraud and amassing wealth, these politicians end up using the looted funds to consolidate their positions through electoral fraud.
He called for the strengthening of laws that provide guidelines on political activities, expenditure or how much individuals and businesses or groups are eligible to contribute towards the funding of political activities in various countries in Sub-Sahara Africa.
He said “some 'clever crooks' hang around top politicians and succeed in duping the state or conniving with others to milk the state in the form of direct stealing, awarding of dubious contracts, under and over invoicing. They act in ways that bleed conflict of interest and undermine public confidence and affects economic development.”
He said the time has come for African leaders to show commitment to good corporate governance principles by disassociating themselves from those around them that are engaging in fraudulent activities and spearheading election rigging.
By William Yaw Owusu
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