Failed State Institutions Cause of Woes

If state institutions were meeting the demands of their mandates, the country would not have been going through the financial and other traumas it is enduring today.

The stories about such institutions chasing individuals for monies owed the state when there is a change of government bespeaks of their feebleness in the face of bullying government appointees in previous regimes; or better put complicity by those at the top of such public institutions.

Many institutions have been rendered almost useless as political interference continues to constitute clogs in their wheels.

The financial hemorrhage suffered by the state is beyond imagination. Suffice it to point out that it is responsible for the myriad challenges the country is suffering today.

The indebtedness of the state has often constituted sources of national discourses and justifiably so. Why should a state institution wake up from slumber only when there is a change in government? People have failed to meet their financial commitments to the state because the relevant institutions which should demand these are unable to do so. Such persons are sufficiently connected at the top of the political establishment so are untouchables.

No country can register progress when such anomalies are allowed to fester. We have observed one of such state agencies making the headlines lately because it has suddenly found its voice and chasing people to come pay up their financial obligations.

As gatekeepers, management of such institutions must also be called to account to the people how they carried out the task bestowed upon them.

The nonsense of witch-hunting which is spewed on the political terrain to win sympathy for those who breach the standards should not be allowed under any circumstances.

Even as they chase the defaulters, the managers of such institutions should be held culpable for negligence.

They fear the consequences of standing their grounds when persons from the political establishment come ordering them around. We long for the day when technocrats would be able to stand up to those who abuse their political appointments.

One institution which has suffered at the hands of bad politicians at the helm is the Police Service. When therefore one senior police officer, Chief Superintendent Dr. Benjamin Agordzo found his voice last week and frowned at the interference of politicians in their work and the effects of the aberration, we found it interesting.

Why couldn't the officer complain about the anomaly when the previous regime was in place? He could not have done so because he would have been punished by a transfer to a part of the country he won't be happy with – the usual punitive actions taken against such bravado.

It is not only the Police which is developed professionally in the absence of political interference but other public institutions also.

Other state institutions have suffered such interferences to the detriment of their efficiency and the country's growth besides the Police.

That the Senior Police Officer has been able to voice out his frustration at this time is an indication that change has really come to the country and this we should all support to grow in leaps.

Let us all join hands in saying no to the political interference in the management of state institutions so that the country would witness visible growth.