Two MPs push for fight against political corruption

Two Members of Parliament (MPs) have called for concerted efforts to fight political corruption.

Murtala Mohammed, MP for Tamale Central and Yves Hanson-Nortey, MP for Tema Central, made the call in reaction to the 2023 half year report of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

Contributing to discussions monitored by the Ghana News Agency on a local television station in Accra on Saturday, the MPs stated that corruption was manifested in every facet of the Ghanaian society.

However, they said the situation was more profound among political elites, which when not addressed head-on, would continue to draw back efforts at improvement the lives of citizens.

“For a journalist, clergy, civil servant or public servant to be corrupt, taking from the State, the only means is through a channel, which is created by a political appointee,” Mr Mohammed said.

“As politicians, we must admit that corruption is a worry, but the biggest of all is the corruption within the political elite, and if we do not fight it we’ll sit here and cry every day,” he added.

Referring to the accumulation of wealth, he said: “You have politicians in this country who within four years, whether under whichever government, build the most expensive houses and hotels and nobody says anything.”

He urged religious leaders to do more in the fight against corruption to augment the efforts of civil society and governments, saying: “It should be part of their sermons. Civic responsibilities must also be encapsulated in our educational curriculum.”

For his part, Mr Hanson-Nortey said that all the corruption schemes seen in the country in the last 20 or 30 years were directly linked to the cost of doing politics in Ghana.

He said it cost so much to be a parliamentary candidate during primaries, and was more during the general election.

“So, in a period of about four years, you’re spending about US$500 million and you’d have to recoup that money. Often times, there are business people who back politicians with the hope that when you come to power, you’ll give them contracts to recoup that money.

“Let’s put in measures that would ensure political funding and hold politicians to account for where their monies come from,” the Tema Central MP said.

Professor Enoch Opoku Antwi, a Public Policy Analyst, said there was a lot of “waste in our system” crippling the economy.
“All the waste we’re seeing is going into individual pockets, and unless we address corruption, we’ll never solve our problems,” he said, and added that “we must make our laws work”.

The 2023 half year report of the OSP said four cases had been completed and were in Court, with conclusion into investigations of four other cases done.

The OSP also reported that it was conducting investigations into nine suspected corruption and corruption-related offences, with 150 other cases at various levels of consideration.

Meanwhile, the Special Prosecutor, Mr Kissi Agyebeng, called for adequate budget line for the Office, saying: “We continue to emphasise the need for the State to pay particular attention to the funding needs of the Office.”