A Look Into The Political Corruption That Goes On In Ghana

• Ghana is weeping, Ghana is bleeding, Ghana is leaking, A Look Into The Political Corruption That Goes On In Ghana as the Public purse gets punched by those who promise to keep it safe.

In the last few years, Ghana has gained recognition as a country that checks all the boxes when it comes to democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. However, there is a lot more we don’t know about the political activities in Ghana. The truth is that corruption is widespread in this country and has been for decades. It’s no secret that politicians use their position to further their own interests and those of their cronies rather than the needs of the people. This article takes a closer look at the political corruption that goes on in Ghana, so you can be aware of what not to say if you ever find yourself drinking tea with a politician here.

A Look Into The Political Corruption That Goes On In Ghana

What does political corruption look like in Ghana?

There are three main types of political corruption that occur in Ghana – financial corruption, election fraud, and nepotism. Financial corruption occurs when a politician uses his or her position to misappropriate funds that are supposed to go towards the public good. This can range from taking bribes in exchange for political favors, to outright stealing government funds.Election fraud occurs when a politician misuses the election process to win votes. This can include manipulating the ballot count, intimidation at the polling station, or even rigging the election altogether. Nepotism is when a politician uses his or her position to secure jobs for friends and family members. At the extreme, this can include selling positions in government agencies.Political corruption isn’t just for government officials. It can also happen within political parties. This can include using party funds for personal gain and rigging internal elections. Even party members can be corrupted by money, as it’s not uncommon for campaign donations to be misused.

How does political corruption occur in Ghana?

Political corruption occurs in Ghana when public officials misuse their power to benefit themselves and their close associates. This can come in many forms, including the use of public funds for personal gain, nepotism, cronyism, and embezzlement.The misuse of public funds for personal gain happens when government officials award contracts to friends and family members, or award government jobs to unqualified persons in exchange for bribes. This can also take the form of public officials accepting bribes from contractors or entrepreneurs who want to secure government contracts.Cronyism occurs when politicians give government jobs to unqualified persons in exchange for political support. Nepotism occurs when family members are employed by the government although they are unqualified for the job.Embezzlement is fraudulently misusing government funds for personal use. For example, some government officials have been caught misusing their government credit cards to purchase luxury items for themselves.

Why does political corruption happen in Ghana?

People often ask why political corruption even exists in Ghana. After all, this is a country that has a solid track record in terms of human rights, political freedom, and democratic elections. While there are many who believe that the country is corruption-free, the reality is that there is a lot of corruption that goes on in Ghana that is simply not reported. This is due in part to a lack of political will to address the issue and also on the fact that government officials themselves are often the ones who are committing the crimes.Corruption in Ghana happens because of a lack of political will to fight it. There is also a general lack of knowledge about what types of behavior constitute corruption. One survey showed that nearly half of Ghanaians don’t even know what corruption is. Other surveys have shown that many Ghanaians believe that having money, friends, and relatives in high places is a necessary part of doing business in the country.

Who are the most corrupt people in Ghana?

Politicians, government officials and public servants are the most corrupt people in Ghana. When you combine these occupations, you have the people who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the government. The problem is that these are the very people who are supposed to be fighting corruption. Unfortunately, they are often the ones who are responsible for it.We can’t name names here, but consider this: A recent survey showed that one-third of all Ghanaian public officials would accept a bribe if they were offered one. That’s a lot of people who are willing to break the law for a price. Such statistics help explain why corruption continues to occur in Ghana despite the efforts of anti-corruption agencies to put a stop to it.

Corruption by the numbers up to 2021

There are many reported cases of government officials misusing funds for personal gain. But even more dramatic is the fact that billions of dollars of government funds have simply disappeared over the years. There are currently three major corruption investigations in progress in Ghana that are aimed at finding out what happened to government funds.The first investigation is into the missing GH¢6.7 billion that was supposed to have been used to fund the construction of a new international airport in Accra. The contractor who was supposed to build it has since gone missing, along with the missing funds. Meanwhile, misappropriation of funds has also been found in the construction of a road connecting Accra and Kumasi.The third investigation involves the acquisition of a fleet of aircraft for use by the government. It was discovered that the government had paid far more for them than the amount listed in the contract. It is suspected that the excess funds were misappropriated.

Sputnik V deal

The most recent of the scandals that has rocked the Akufo-Addo administration is the botched Sputnik V vaccine deal.

The matter come to light after a Norwegian news outlet, Verdens Gang, reported that Ghana, through the Health Ministry, had requested to purchase the doses of the Sputnik V vaccine through two businessmen who were selling it at high price of US$19 per dose instead of the US$10 per dose on the international market.

The outlet revealed that the Government of Ghana was using the services of middlemen to procure some 3.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccines produced in Russia which prompted calls for the deal to be terminated.

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu is said to have paid more than US$2.8 million to an intermediary businessman named, Sheikh Al Maktoum, for the procurement of vaccines only to be provided 20,000 doses out an initial first consignment of 300,000 doses.

This further raised a lot of questions of the minister’s actions which sparked widespread condemnation as he was subjected to the court of public opinion with many calls for him to resign.

Parliament, however, instituted an ad-hoc committee where the minister formally admitted he did not seek cabinet and parliamentary approval prior to engaging the middlemen for the procurement of Sputnik V vaccines.

The Dubai-based businessman, Sheikh Maktoum on his part agreed to refund an amount of US$2,470,000 of the US$2.8 million paid to him after the health minister in a letter, made a request for a refund of the money

With growing calls for the minister to resign came a two week leave request which was granted by the Chief of Staff, for the minister to attend to some ‘personal issues’.

The ad-hoc committee of Parliament probing the matter is however yet to conclude on its findings as at the time of filing this report.

PPA boss

Another scandal that has rocked the ruling government is that of the former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority.

Agyenim Boateng Adjei was first suspended by the president after it emerged, through an investigative piece put together by ace journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, that he was involved in procurement misconducts and selling of government contracts using a private company.

In the documentary, Agyenim Boateng admitted that he was a 50% shareholder of the said company named Talents Discovery Limited but indicated that he had duly declared his interests to the PPA board.

The piece also found that the private company had been awarded a number of key government contracts through restrictive tendering.

After widespread condemnation of Agyenim Boateng’s acts, he was, following his suspension, referred to the Commission for Human Rights Administrative Justice and Office of the Special Prosecutor for two separate probes. One of which involved potential acts of corruption and the other on conflict of interest.

After the two probes were conducted, a report by CHRAJ was submitted to the president who quickly terminated Agyenim Boateng’s contract for engaging in the illegal acts.

CHRAJ, in its report, concluded that “on the totality of the evidence, Agyenim Boateng had put himself in a position where his personal interests conflicted with the performance of his functions as CEO and board member of the PPA.”

Portions of the report further stated that the sacked PPA boss could not explain the source of what is termed as “Unexplained Wealth” as large volumes of financial transactions had passed through his bank accounts between March 2017 and August 2019.

CHRAJ further stated that Agyenim Boateng Adjei “handled large volumes of cash exceedingly in excess of his known income as CEO of PPA.”

GH¢800,000 allocated for development of a website

A rather shocking incident occurred at the Ministry of Special Development as a whopping amount of GH¢800,000 was alleged to have been quoted in its budget for the designing of a website in 2017.

Though the sector minister, Mavis Hawa Koomson, later admitted the said amount was an oversight and was rather supposed to be GH¢80,000, the Minority in Parliament mounted pressure for her to resign.

Ranking Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson, described Hawa Koomson as grossly incompetent as he said she justified her explanation based on the reaction to public outcry of the revelation.

“What we considered at the committee is GH¢800,000, certainly not GH¢80,000. Is the Minister telling me that she is such an incompetent lady to the extent that she couldn’t read and understand her own document?” Cassiel Ato Forson said.

A formal communication on the findings of the alleged scandal is still yet to be provided as at the time of filing this report.

Kelni GVG deal

In June 2018, it emerged that the Ministry of Communications had entered into an agreement with a Haitian company named Kelni GVG, to monitor the revenue and calls operation of telecommunications companies operating in Ghana for 10 years.

Policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana had alleged that Kelni GVG had already been paid huge sums of dollars for no initial work done.

IMANI argued that Afriwave and the National Communications Authority had the requisite capacity to conduct the revenue assurance and calls monitoring exercise hence there was no need to engage another company to do same.

It also emerged that KelniGVG which was particularly known for the supply of building material and groceries had no specific office locations, a non-functioning website and reliable contacts for the project.

The US$178 million deal sparked debate and was subsequently subjected to a Parliamentary probe where the sector minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, was summoned by Parliament to respond to questions over the deal.

Despite various petitions to get the Courts to intervene in the controversial deal of Kelni GVG deal, the contract was however approved with the deal currently in operation.

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Kroll and Associates, Domelovo saga

In 2019, Former Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo and four other officials at the Ministry of Finance were cited by then Auditor-General, Daniel Domelovo for their involvement in the Kroll and Associates saga.

The A-G in a report concluded that the aforementioned breached the Public Procurement Act that culminated in a US$1 million payment to the UK-based firm for no work done.

Daniel Domelovo indicated that Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo had on numerous occasions failed to provide an actual proof of work done by Kroll and Associates Limited.

This resulted in a legal but public battle between Daniel Domelovo and Yaw Osafo who was surcharged along with four others by the A-G who also recommended the disallowance of the payment of the US$1million to Kroll and Associates of which the Ministry of Finance had paid.

The Auditor-General was later abruptly asked to proceed on leave by President Akufo-Addo to take his accumulated leave. Domelovo a few days to his return was asked to leave his post on reasons that he had attained the statutory retirement age and questions over his nationality.

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The Big Bad Bosses of Ghanaian Corruption

There are many people who are responsible for the spread of corruption in Ghana. However, there are a few who stand out from the crowd as the Big Bad Bosses of Ghanaian Corruption. These are the politicians who have been responsible for the greatest amount of corruption over the years.They are known for their corrupt behavior, their ties to big business, and their close relationships with the former presidents of Ghana. Some of these people have even been arrested and either imprisoned or extradited to other countries where they face charges.Some of these people are currently in jail while others are believed to have fled the country and are living abroad. Some have even been named in corruption charges by the new government that came into power after the 2016 elections. However, they have not been arrested and stand accused of being untouchable by the current government.

Read: Kwame A Plus Writes: You promised to fight corruption but you are rather fighting everybody who fights corruption

Corruption has plagued Ghana for decades, but it seems to have gotten even more prevalent in recent years. This is due in part to the fact that the previous government was not only complicit in the corruption but also used it to maintain power. There is currently a lot of discussion about what can be done to put a stop to corruption in Ghana, but it’s not clear yet how effective any efforts will be. The hope is that, as more people become aware of what corruption looks like and how it happens, it will become easier to stamp it out.