I can take the assets of the Poor…..because under some laws that I passed sometime ago, I am entitled to it….
May 19, 2009
In recent months, the media terrain in Ghana has been filled with stories about outgoing government officials stripping the state of assets and cash as part of entitlements with all sorts of funny names. While supporters of the new government find it a convenient platform to re-launch a campaign tag of greed used against the past administration, defenders of the past government also use the stories as reminders that their officials are being consistently vilified while the new government refuses to focus on the more important bread and butter issues that affect the poor Ghanaian.
But the list of items that former government officials are claiming as part of their entielements makes interesting reading. It ranges from Cash – hundreds of thousands new Ghana cedis of it for the former President way down to the DCE who did absolutely nothing in his / her district, cars – even those that they are not entitled to, offices and houses et al. As the list grows daily, the media is oft accussed of fanning this empty debate of car seizures and failing to keep the government focused on the “real issues”. (What are the real issues by the way?)
What is also very interesting to note, is that a critical review of this ex-gratia debate (as its now affectionately called) shows that it is not limited to Politicians or for that matter even NPP former government officials alone. In 2001, outgoing NDC government officials were are also guilty of many such acts notable among them, being the sale of up to about 80 state vehicles at ridiculous prices to outgoing officials. Even now CPP and PNC former members of parliament would have claimed their ex-gratia under article 71 but for the huge public outcry over it. And even beyond the Politicians, civil servants and head of government ministries departments and agencies use a so called “convention” that has existed over the years, to rape the state of million of Ghana cedis of assets when their tenure ends – some through soft furnishings, cars etc in their offices and homes.
Perhaps the most repugnant of all examples is that of the former speaker of Parliament who has now been found by parliament as having taken items worth about two hundred and sixty Ghana cedis (GHC 260,000) to which he was not entitled.
At every step, our looting public officials have described their acts with flowery english and legal parlance that essentially says - they are entitled to whatever they have taken – and that that nothing else matters. Some have tried to hide under legal provisions that suggest that once the loot has been conferred on them by parliament or some convention / provision, we the ordinary tax payers cannot reverse their looting. Others have also suggested that because in some past years others looted under this regime, it is unfair to single them out and ask for a review of the status quo.
In my opinion, all excuses and justifications that suggest that public officials are entitled to the outrageous loot they take home with them (after cancelling end of service benefits for the ordinary civil servant) doesn’t wash.
Recently in Britain, a newspaper reveled that members of parliament had been (for years now) claiming huge expenses that enabled them to live lavishly off the widows might of the ordinary Brit. The revelation caused huge public uproar as many taxpayers got incensed by the fact that their taxes were being used to line the pockets and in some cases feed the fun frenzy of Politicians through perfectly legal means. (A few weeks earlier, the public was also incensed by stories of huge ex-gratia payments to Politicians and public servants while hospital and working conditions of the ordinary Ghanaian didn’t seem to improve over the years.)
In a matter of days, the British Prime minister and senior MPs realizing the public disgust at their actions have apologized for their actions and mostly refunded their claims. They chose not to argue about the legal entitlements or past culprits but saw wisdom in being sensitive to the pains of the ordinary taxpayer.
In contrast, our Politicians and public officials in Ghana continue to sing the same songs of justification, even after it has become clearer now than ever, that Ghanaians are not happy with their entitlements (which they incidentally confer on themselves), their justification and their seeming greed. They still don’t seem to get it, that there is something beyond the laws of entitlement (I repeat which they confer on themselves)
The moral argument, doesn’t seem to hit them, that while millions in this country continue to wallow in poverty and squalor, while the rule of law remains so far from majority of Ghanaians and while the future doesn’t look that bright for the next generation of Ghanaian children, they don’t seem as interested in talking about what the Ghanaian is entitled to as they talk of theirs.
In the past week, our parliamentarians have conferred on themselves another (GHC 30,000) thirty thousand cedis loan for rent advance while nurses and teachers beg for their 2year salary areas to be paid. Soon they would confer on themselves some car loans and other entitlements and write off the loans with some huge ex-gratia entitlements while many school children continue to sit and learn under trees.
I sincerely pray that the President expedites action on his promise to review the ex-gratia paid to former government officials. This would not only send a strong signal into the future, but would also earn the Prof some good Political capital…..I also pray that sometime soon, civil society also takes a look at the debate of entitlements and makes a strong case for a cancellation of these entitlements and an improvement in the pension regime so that all public servants enjoy a good pension instead. Finally I hope also that our Politicians and media (of which I am a part) begin to shift attention unto the entitlements of the ordinary poor Ghanaian who struggles daily to make a living.
And until then, my humble appeal to public servants in Ghana:
Please stop looting our assets in the name of entitlements.
Comments
15 Responses to “I can take the assets of the Poor…..because under some laws that I passed sometime ago, I am entitled to it….”
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Ok Kojo, good piece there but I have an issue with how you ended it. Its the typical Ghanaian way…”I sincerely pray ” ” Please stop” ” My humble appeal” “I hope”. How do you think these words will effect change in a group of people who are seasoned criminals? They are bent on taking what they feel they are entitled to so words will not change a thing !!! What we need to do as Ghanaians is what is done in the advanced countries. GATHER EVIDENCE AND SUE THEM !!! Remember when Rawlings was going around with a camera? Thats one thing we could all do. Go around and gather evidence upon evidence and I bet you a court will easily find them guilty. I am tired of us talking about how wrong something is and hoping that the culprits will have a change of heart. They never will. Its like not locking your door at night and hoping that a thief will feel sorry for you and leave your property alone. Fat chance of that happening !!!! The era of just talking needs to end. We need to be proactive and defend what is rightfully ours. If it means making life a living hell for the politicians by following them around with cameras so be it. If it means taking the initiative and going around to collect signatures of people who want that politican out of office and presenting the list to the government and media outlets, so be it. Doing nothing should never be an option. I applaud you for talking about it here and on your show but you owe it to Ghana’s children to come up with simple but effective ways to end this. Praying and hoping are not enough. Start a campaign, start a watch dog group, write to the international bodies etc. Its when politicans start to see that we are not just talking that they will do the right thing. They will still steal, but at least it wont be so much, so blatant and so insulting. Ghana is seen as the beacon for Africa (as is evidenced by Obama’s choice to come here) and WE need to start taking control of this corrupt practice that plagues all African nations. You are blessed to have a mic and an international audience, use it wisely. And oh one more thing, (a bit unrelated but worth noting) I would like you to start challenging anyone who has a problem with anything going on in Ghana to come up with at least ONE practical solution. This includes your news readers and callers who share their opinion on matters. If they are gonna call and complain about not having light in their homes for days, they need to be proactive and tell us how they would have solved the problem if they were working for ECG. We are too comfortable with the whole “Oh its not MY headache” phenomenon. Where the excuse is well I dont get paid to solve ECG’s problems so I will just complain till the problem is solved by SOMEONE other than me. Although it is true that we need to hold those who are paid to do the job accountable and demand results from them, what we fail to realize is that every problem is a potential business idea and if you can think of a solution for it, you are well on your way to owning your own company and having a monopoly on it. That is how the worlds richest people got rich; by creating solutions to seemingly huge problems that noone wanted to tackle. So challenge all your callers to think outside the box and come up with solutions. Your schpeel here on this blog about entitlements presents an opportunity. What can I do that has never been done before to solve this problem once and for all? What do the western nations do to curtail this problem? Can I modify their solution to suit Ghana and build a company around it? Think about how much money a tv show that exposes crook officials will make. Every problem in our soceity is a potential business idea if we think of practical, outside the box solutions. Have a good one.
Is it only politicians who are entitle to stuffs in ghana? What if everybody starts talking about what he is entitle to, will the state be able to afford what everybody is entitle to?
Children are entitle to free compulsory universal education, workers are entitled to proper wages , descent accomodation and proper ESB. , drivers are entitle to proper roads etc..
Is about time we start making the politicians know that they are not first class citizens whiles others are second class citizens. They are not better than us . I’m glad the doctors are also demanding what they deserve. i want everybody to also start demanding what they deserve ane we shall see what happens.
Hi Kojo,
I just want to share my mind on this cocaine matter. why the rush into arresting or picking up suspects. Are we that daft? Did we not learn from Amoateng’s case in the U.S?
Look my brother, they knew the cocaine was coming in, yet they had patience for the culprits to come for the cargo - they followed up to the warehouse where they met to talk business about the stuff. Why can’t we learn?
Kojo I will not be surprised if these pple deny having ever dealt in cocaine. And again mark my word these allegations will eventually fall flat. why? the lawyers will know just what to say to get out their clients. the only fustration will be to use the law to extend their time of detention.
Remember the lady claims she imported chewing gums. and dont forget you as an importer don’t fill up the containers. and of course the container may contain goods belonging to other importers. but also dicey is the fact someone could have put those bags containing cocaine in there.
Please let us stop playing politics with this cocaine matter. All we needed was to wait just for a little while for the goods to be cleared and then followed up to nap the Baron’s. Well just may be that is not the interest. Yes may be ahead of the coming into town of the American President we announce this just to score political points.
Have a nice day bro. and you take care. Don;t forget to tell Koku Anyidoho to take it easy -
Fiifi.
Kojo, i am inspired by your straight forwardness to this topic and hope that our politicians will once stop and listen. i hope they will lean from the example of the Brit.
i can only say that your submission can be summed up with a qoute of Pastor Mensa Otabil during ICGC 25th Anniversary, 1st March 2009 at the Stadium.
“If we are going to take charge of the future, we have to be Generational Thinkers. That means therefore everything that you do you have to think of the person who is coming after you and make sure the person coming after you will not be worse off but will be better than you are” Pastor Mensa Otabil
this is the kind of change we need in Ghana.
God help us to stay focus..
hi kojo
tell the politician that its our right to have water , good hospitals and good road to travel on , we are entitle to it and what have they done about it .
Eric
Please, as youth lets us not channel our energies on things that would not create jobs. All corrupt officials must face judgement.
BE PART
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can”t some of ghanaian see that reduce of cocain in ghana indicates sign of change.
why should we allow the rich to continue to loot we the poor taxpayers? Revolution is not like an apple that falls when its ripe you have to make it fall, there is no plcae for capitalism in this part of our world, we thank GOD that the capitalist are now in the bush, long live all socialist and lets continue to fight fo the right of the vulnerable in society
Well Kojo,
I agree the Former Speaker was plain wrong the way he acted, in fact l can’t even understand why he waited until now for all kinds of persons to brand him whatever. I have run out of sympathy for him. But does his action amount to thievery, l have heard tons of arguments suggesting exactly that with even very notable personalities in government calling for his prosecution. In that case you should expect him and anyone in that situation to defend his action. And Kojo for your information some of the parliamentarians in Britain did defend their action, it is human and not Ghanaian, people often act on reasoned grounds and would defend such actions. I even heard one of them on BBC claiming it was out of envy that the issue had been dragged that far.
But back to the former speaker, l find it quite intriguing that we can assume a thief knowing a raid could EASILY be traced to him stills goes ahead to raid - do l make sense? Well let me quickly add - a lawyer, a prominent and a successful one at that and one time Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament - intentionally takes items he knows he isn’t entitled to - he must be dumb eh, we must be having very dumb people holding us together as a nation and we should feel sad then.
Hmm, on the contrary, l suppose he made a plain BIG MISTAKE, probably thinking he was just following a culture - but today he stands accused. We suddenly forget this has been happening all this while and the solution does not lie in demonising one individual, we need to look at the bigger picture and tackle it from there.
If l may,
A young man at 28, a one time student leader became a minister of state. He lived with his parents, but his new status gave him a state bungalow, a state vehicle and all the trappings of his position. He worked hard, he served his country very well for 4 years, perhaps 8 years, he got married at 30 and had three children during his tenure. Let’s be real, he sent the children to good schools, not public, he had access to good healthcare, etc. He is 36 now and the youngest child will be turning 1 soon. He lost his job because his govt lost elections.
He is confronted with a future of uncertainty - has not got a house, no car of his own, no pension, etc. Why did he not plan? Well, we talk evil about success so much that during the period, if he had dared to put up a single room accommodation he would have been toasted by the media and the cynics. He decided to live on his salary, alone and could only afford to buy a plot of land - although he knew he did not have job security.
His counterpart on the other hand confronted with this same scenerio wondered why he should live into such an uncertain future - he planned, after all he had power to influence decisions and earned some extras to put up a decent house, buy a good car and perhaps establish a business to take care of his needs after his employment is terminated should his party lose.
Kojo, you went to Catholic Schools - St. Bernedette & Pope Johns - asking you to read - Luke 16:1-9. will not be too much. I don’t mean to justify the former speakers action, like Christ did not mean to justify the servant in the parable. I mean however to say, if we do not handle this issue well, dispassionately, we shall end up with public office holders who will behave like this shrewd servant, they will prepare and prepare well to our detriment.
I had thought the whole idea of ex-gratia was designed around the carrot and stick “approach” , a decent retirement for our leaders and also to assure them of a certain future. And l say this because note the president and the teacher are not the same, the broadcaster and the nurse are not the same, neither is the zoomlion cleaner the same as the Police man. You put so much power and responsibility in the hands of one and less in the hands of the other, they should be given different treatments. You definitely do not take the same salary as the receptionist and yet the receptionist may be facing legitimate difficulties, the labourer deserves his wages.
Let us debate this issue, be very clear about what we do not want to give, but let us give enough to reduce the temptation of our leaders stealing and stop pretending political leadership is a sacrifice, it has never been and it will never be.
Hi Kojo,
I attended one Giet College to become a radio presenter, but I was unfortunate I could only take DJING because of the fees which was about GH ¢600. I managed GH¢ 27 for the DJING of which i was assured of a practical attachment after I complete. I was given the attachment form to look for an attachment myself after the programme.
I have submitted the form to a couple of radio stations including JOY FM, and honestly kojo it has been so hard for me. I receive response from nobody.
For heaven’s sake Kojo please help me get an attachment because I know you can. I know very well this could be the turning point in my life. Don’t let me down Kojo because I have also got talents and I need persons like you to help me get them out.
Please give me a helping hand and God will bless you
looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you
Stephen Kojo Quansah
0273952211
the former speaker had been out of controversy ever since he came to office however this situation has made him the most tainted member of the former administration,.. he deserves every backlash he gets for trying to take things which he knew full well did not belong to him. does he mean to say the fat salaries, benefits, per diem and others he received were not enough for him that he had to LOOT the entire government bungalow in addition.Pls spare us all this hogwash about i thought i was entitled to it and all that crap. he should face the law if found guilty
Kojo,
I wolud like to commend Prez Mills for a good work done for thr 60 Days he has been in office . Why are the officails of the past gonerment runing way from accouning to the poeple of ghana for how they used our money and resources when they were in office.This is not witch hunting as they call it.
Joy FM, there is a saying that sometime when you are on top, you become untouchable and think that everything you do is right.
Your newspaper review has become a comedian platform for Ato, whatever the papers wrote about is a story, and u have a serious people listening to your network, please tell him to reserve his jokes for his web page and say things that reflect the true image of Joy 99.7. back in the days of Komla and Sonny Deka.
thank you.
Hi Kojo, If the former speaker is entitled to all the things he took home, b’cos he has served for four years. And members of paliament are entitled to huge ex-gratia after serving their term? Then what does the teacher get after 35 years of srevice,what about the doctors, nurses and other civil servants.
Kojo you know the most sad part of the whole is about we national service personnels who cannot get jobs after our service. What are we entitle to?
All recruitments into the army, police, customs and other agencies have been ceased .Even appointments and admissions to Ministries Departments and Agencies all have been frozen.
Is it our fault for being a Ghanaian or it’s a crime not to be a politician. Many of us churn out of the universities and polytechnics every year without opportunities and nothing to atall.
May be some of us should set up our own ministries or army or police srevice. What do you think?
Kojo Iwould like to communicate with you personally through mail, b’cos some of the things are personal.
Thanks for the opportunity!!!
GOD BLESS GHANA!!!
Ei! Talk is Cheap they say. With the benefit of sitting afar, it is easy to say someone did nothing for his or her country. Bravo, you are the only one working hard for Ghana. Go Kojo!