GII TACKLES MAHAMA ON CORRUPTION

Ghana Integrity Initiative

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday March 8, 2013

As part of the effort to help rid the country of widespread corruption, the local Chapter of Transparency International (TI), the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has told President John Dramani Mahama in plain language that he should select only competent and corrupt-free appointees.

The GII drew the President’s attention to “the inappropriateness of using public appointments as reward system for the party faithful based on loyalty to party course.”

A news release titled ‘Appointments And Remuneration Of Board Members And Public Officers’, issued on March 1, 2013 in Accra by the anti-corruption body, said the wanton appointment of party faithful without recourse to competence “tends to reward mediocrity and destroys the esprit de corps of the public service as public servants tend to be apathetic.

Concerns 

“Productivity within the public service very often suffers irreparable damage;

Such political appointees tend to grow horns and destroy the well-established order of the workings of the public service; Chief executive officers appointed by such political means do not see themselves as accountable to the board under which they are supposed to work,” GII pointed out.

The anti-corruption body said such appointments also bread “factions and power blocks develop among board members depending on where the loyalty of a board member lies within the party structure leading to unhealthy and unworkable relationships which affects the smooth functioning of the board.”

They said the technocrats on the board “tend to view with suspicion the politicians on the board and vice versa,” adding “Some of the board members bring no added value to the entity they are put in charge apart from collecting huge sitting allowances.”

“Such appointees see their appointments as a means of livelihood and create unnecessary meetings and get themselves appointed unto several sub-committees in order to earn more allowances.”

Role of Parliament

GII said what is troubling is that “Parliamentarians, who are expected to play an oversight role over the Executive, are also appointed to Boards of corporations, compromising their independence and oversight role.”

They said on principle, it is wrong to appoint parliamentarians onto boards of such entities, since they are supposed to provide overall oversight responsibility to those state entities.

“ The only justification is to enable such parliamentarians earn extra income outside their parliamentarian duties.  This practice must stop if we are committed to having effective institutions and having a Parliament that plays effective oversight over the Executive and affairs of the state. Ghanaians must condemn these appointments,” GII pointed out.

Outrageous Salaries & Allowances

The GII noted with concern that “very often, board members are allowed to fix salaries and other benefits for the CEOs and other management staff while, in turn, the CEOs fix allowances for the Board chairs and other members.”

“Some of these board members are paid outrageous sitting allowances alongside several benefits in kind such as official vehicles, free fuel, sponsored foreign travels and birthday parties. They tend to award themselves and enjoy such huge compensation packages as if the entities they are put in charge to manage are their personal properties when indeed they have not invested a cedi of their own.” 

Vitus Azeem is the Executive Secretary of GII

Government’s Indifference

The GII said “Governments of the day seem not to be bothered about how much these benefits cost the SOEs and sub-vented institutions in particular and the state in general. The nation loses resources which go into the private pockets which could be paid into the Consolidated Fund for the common good of the society.”

“The GIPC saga is still fresh in our minds and GII still hopes to hear that the money has been refunded to that organization by the beneficiary.”  

The GII noted with concern that some influential and highly placed persons belong to several boards even when they are too busy to attend and contribute to board meetings and activities saying “There can be no meaningful justification for such appointments other than political patronage.”

“Moreover, due to the juicy nature of some of these positions, none of these appointees is ever known to have turned down such appointment because they can honestly not get the time to do a good job,” they added.

They said that “rewarding persons for political support with such juicy appointments and permitting them to determine huge allowances and other benefits for themselves and failing to take action when they compromise the institutions they preside over is definitely corruption.”

“GII holds the view that as long as these SOEs were set up with funds from the public purse, the state has a duty and right to ensure that board members, in collaboration with their CEOs, protect the viability of these institutions of state,” it argued.

The statement further said the GII again notes with concern that some Commissioners of certain independent institutions who are not full time staff members are treated like full time staff members and given benefits such as vehicles and fuel, etc, that amount to several times more than the salaries of several fulltime staff put together.

“Some of these Commissioners may even work fulltime elsewhere in government, thus, receiving double remuneration from the same Ghana government, while others use their benefits to pursue their private businesses. These acts must be checked as they increase the inequalities in the public sector and are a drain of the public purse.”

Way Forward

The GII called on President Mahama to “ensure that those he appoints to manage state-owned enterprise have the requisite competencies, knowledge and skills to manage such entities, and if possible, make the criteria for such appointments known.”

They also want the President to order those appointed to account appropriately for their stewardship,  reorganise the State Enterprises Commission (SEC) to enable it perform its statutory obligations effectively and efficiently especially in its supervision of and establishing guidelines for the management of state owned enterprises.

The GII further want the SEC to streamline the criteria for the appointment and the fixing of the remunerations of board members and other steering committee members and to have control over their remuneration and allowances;

The anti-corruption body finally want President to limit the number of boards one can serve at any one time to an agreed number and to put in place effective and efficient reporting and accountability system to ensure that board members and other such persons in charge of management perfume their function with due diligence free from any conflict of interest and are as much as possible guided by the provisions of the Companies Act, 1963 Act 179.

“Ghana needs an ethical values system as an important ingredient in the delivery of quality services, the key to building customer loyalty, employee satisfaction and long term viability. Basic values such as honesty, transparency, responsibility, fairness and integrity must be the watchwords,” they contended.

“We must demand that corporations behave ethically and in service of the common good and bring values back to the boardroom. The government, as the owner of SOEs and state agencies must provide the leadership. Part-time board members and/or Commissioners, and others must not be allowed to exploit their public positions to build their private businesses and/or fund their ostentatious living.”