MP Victimized by Elusive Freedom of Information (FOI) Law

“…Mr. Speaker, with the help of the House and the co-operation of the whole nation, government has tackled the other problems head-on…In 2001, with the welter of problems besetting Ghana, it was also expected to find US$250 million to service external debts. It was against this background that government decided to take the HIPC initiative…Benefits from the HIPC initiative are… abundantly manifest. On our reaching the completion point in record time six months ago, Ghana became the immediate beneficiary of the cancellation of US$2 billion of our external debts, with a further US$2 billion to be cancelled over the next twenty years at the rate of US$100 million a year. Funds from HIPC savings are being invested in poverty reduction programmes all over the country. And here, I bet Mr Speaker, that each honourable member of this House has a HIPC-funded project in his or her constituency (President Kufuor, Inaugural Speech, 7 Jan 01).

”…INVESTIGATION CONDUCTED by DAILY GUIDE in the Jirapa constituency of the Upper West Region has revealed that the incumbent…MP… for the area, Mr. Edward Salia is fast losing his supporters to the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party…who is also the District Chief Executive (DCE)…More than 10 communities believed to be strongholds of Mr. Salia have been converted to the NPP while more are still joining in a drive to claim the seat for the NPP…(Daily Guide, 17 Mar 08).

“…The Ministry of Finance…has taken note of a report prepared by the SEND Foundation on the management and disbursement of HIPC funds. The conclusion in the report that the management and allocation of HIPC funds have not followed due procedure is inaccurate and misleading…. and dangerous….The application of HIPC funds to HIPC designated projects is done in harmony with the allocation of resources to other growth and poverty reduction programmes…Monitoring and auditing of HIPC expenditures have been taken seriously. HIPC disbursements are captured separately and alongside other discretionary expenditures under the National Expenditure Tracking Systems (NETS)….Additionally, government has allocated resources to civil society groups to help build their capacity for carrying out independent monitoring of the management of HIPC funds…” (Daily Dispatch, Ghanaweb, 17 Oct 06)

The recent disclosure that a Member of Ghana’s Parliament has been waiting for more than 3 years for answers to a few simple questions about a program that is completely controlled by Ghana’s bureaucrats and politicians could be characterized as comical if it wasn’t such a serious abrogation of responsibility by the NPP administration. According to the GNA report (Ghanaweb, 13 June 08), Mr. Edward Salia, MP for Jirapa (NDC), expressed outrage at the failure of the Speaker of the House, Mr. Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, (NPP), to table his rather elementary questions about the HIPC program 36 months after he had carefully composed those questions and sent them forward for answers, to wit:

“…To ask the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning what was the total amount of the funds received since Ghana joined the HIPC Initiative in 2001 and what is the regional and sectoral distribution of the HIPC Funds so far received?…”

Now, the reader should note that Mr. Salia reminds us that Ghana joined the HIPC Initiative in 2001 so that the 3-year old question actually would cover a 7 year period. This week, Mr. Salia again reminded Mr. Sekyi Hughes that his questions were time-dated and that it would be pointless if Mr. Sekyi Hughes would take additional time to respond, thereby rendering the answers as worthless as a Zimbabwe dollar. And perhaps seeing so many zeroes, Mr. Sekyi Hughes simply “assured the MP that his concerns would be addressed.” Some assurance!

President Kufour says that HIPC is a national program that has been benefiting every constituency in Ghana, that HIPC benefits have been “abundantly clear” since 2001? Why then, we want to know, is it so difficult for officials to render an account of those HIPC benefits given the abundance of clarity about those benefits? Would the reader agree that the refusal to respond on time qualifies as yet one more example of the failure by the Kufour administration to render an account of his “government’s stewardship”?

That said, we will posit that in this case responsibility and accountable in government is a 2-way street. Sadly for Ghana, the conundrum facing Mr. Salia is that he was part of the previous NDC government, at one time its Minister of Transport and Communications. That the NDC government failed to institutionalize accountability and transparency in government should now be obvious to Mr. Salia if he is in a balanced frame of mind. Other wise, he would have been able to quickly show the NPP a way to answer his rather mundane questions. But Mr. Salia can’t because when Mr. Salia had a chance to make a difference, Mr. Salia never bothered.

Take the case of the failure of the NPP administration to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill. Over the past 3 years, a few officials have asked that the NPP administration pass the FOI bill, among them, Mr. Alban Bagbin of the NDC. Now, in the past we have strongly disagreed with Mr. Bagbin as when he told Ghanaians he would do whatever was needed to defend Dr. Anane and welcome the disgraced former MP back to the Transport Ministry. But even Mr. Bagbin has strongly taken a pro position on the FOI bill. No so, Mr. Salia, as far as we are able to tell.

Fact is, for more than 3 years, Mr. Salia has not seen any connection between the information we has asking from the halls of Parliament on the one hand and the denial by the NPP administration of the Freedom of Information bill. However, if you look at it with soberly, you will discover that the two are related, that they are practically two sides of the same coin. The FOI bill after all seeks to compel the government to produce information held by none other than the government. FOI aims to assist private individuals, the press, and government officials (read Mr. Salia) who feel that the government is unjustly withholding information that has absolutely no public or national security value in a democracy.

So here we are now in June 2008 and Mr. Salia is still dismayed that questions he filed more than 3 years ago are still not included in questions listed for next week's business of Parliament. In fact, Mr. Salia is flabbergasted that “…those listed…question(s) had been unduly delayed….(that)…further delay to list the question and provide a response would not serve the purpose for which the question was intended…”

ITEM: Hard as it is for Prof Lungu to propose, can we say that Ghana can probably wait a few more months for a true reckoning of the HIPC accounts. Yes, a new government other than an NPP or NDC government that would quickly get to the bottom of all those investments and divestments and explain to the people how all those funds for “poverty reduction programmes all over the country” have truly benefited all constituencies, including the Salia constituency.

Do we now understand why Mr. Salia wants this information right now? Is it because he may be losing his seat and requires an Ace? Or can we assume that Mr. Salia is interested in the data because he thinks it will serve the interest of Ghanaians and help promote accountability, transparency, and timeliness?

PRO LUNGU’S TAKE-AWAY: We urge all concerned to lend their strong voices to passage of a strong “Freedom of Information Bill” (FOIB) for Ghana, right now. In fact, we will remind Mr. Salia, Mr. Bagbin, Attorney General Joe Ghartey, and their boss that it is important to have priorities. We think that the FOI bill ought to be at the top of the Ghana priority list where governance is concerned. We think that in the current circumstance, it is still useful and practical to pass a FOIB. Pass the FOIB now, we say. Do not wait for others and Prof Lungu to remind you: What a Shame, when you had a chance to make a huge difference you blew it and allowed others to nurse their loot while they trampled with impunity on the Ghana’s Asset Declaration Law. You’ve wasted Ghana’s time and resources with trivial programs, pointless travel, and useless praise worship.

Take your Saliatis away! Go away, you nonentity! You are a deserving Suffer-Head!

Prof Lungu, 16 June 2008

Email: [email protected]

Note: Visit www.GhanaHero.com for more information. Read, listen, watch, and reflect! www.GhanaHero.com. (FOIB – Are You Pickable?).