Features
Minority cries foul over proper accountability of COVID-19 expenditure by government
Accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or account for one’s actions. It is often used in the context of individuals taking responsibility for their actions. An example is when an employee admits an error he or she made on a particular project.
IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability is so important because it eliminates the time and effort spent on distracting activities and other unproductive behaviour. When you make people accountable for their actions, it means you are effectively teaching them to value their work. For leaders to be accountable, they need to be committed to the business and its people. They must regard their role as leaders of people and build trust among team members. Leaders who are accountable, clearly communicate their goals and objectives and foster alignment and team focus.
Having stated what accountability connotes and how a leader is supposed to adopt and apply it to advance the course of progress, I am inclined to dwell on the recent development in our country where the Minority group in Parliament is crying foul over how moneys set aside by the government for the management of the deadly Corona Virus pandemic (COVID-19) were expended since 2020.
ACCOUNTABILITY OF COVID-19 FUNDS
Within the last few weeks, proceedings in parliament had not been smooth sailing between the Majority and the Minority caucuses in what looked like a war of words over this particular issue of expenditure of COVID-19 funds. The Minority has not been comfortable with the figures at their disposal and, therefore requested the Speaker, Mr. Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin to summon the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta,to appear before the House to answer questions relating to the issue.
For a number of weeks after the Speaker had issued the invitation to the Finance Minister to appear before the Legislature, he failed to be present citing reasons such as engagement with other government businesses and that he needed more time to put together his answers to how the expenditure was conducted by the various agencies.
SPEAKER’S SUMMONS TO FINANCE MINISTER
Not appeared to be happy with the continued absence of the Minister to the Chamber, the Speaker directed the Finance Committee to suspend all deliberations on the 75 million Euro facility for a COVID-19 response programme currently before the House for consideration. Hear him; “Until we go through the accountability process, we will not take that motion. Today, he has another request before us. That will also be affected. Until he comes to respond to the questions and to submit the statement giving an explanation as to how the money has been applied, we will not entertain any business from the ministry.”
The Speaker, we are told, gave the ruling despite admitting that there had been communication through the Majority Leader by the Finance Minister about his non-availability to appear before the House. That was after he (Speaker) had held a meeting with the leadership of the House. According to him when questions were asked of ministers, the House expected them to come and answer them and quoted Standing Order 61 of Parliament to buttress his point.
To refresh the minds of my readers and patrons, Standing Order 61 states that, “Ministers shall by order of the House be requested to attend to sittings of the House to answer questions asked them.” The Speaker further cited Standing Order 60 (3) which also states that, “A minister shall not take more than three weeks to respond to questions of the House.” He indicated that based on the Standing Order of Parliament, the Business Committee of the House was given the opportunity to do the allotment and, thus, allotted June 16, for the Finance Minister to come and answer some questions that stood in the name of his ministry.
EXCUSES FROM FINANCE MINISTER NOT TO APPEAR IN PARLIAMENT
“The Finance Minister told us that he would not be available today and before today. I gave a directive to the effect that the Minister appears before this house to accept money that we approved for him to use to lead the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of questions have been raised, so we expected the Minister to come and account as to how state resources had been applied to the benefit of the people. I just indicated that until that was done, a motion requesting for approval of the House for money to be given to the Ministry of Finance for the purpose of COVID-19 will be on hold,” said the Speaker.
Before the Speaker gave his ruling, the Minority had expressed its displeasure over the Minister’s inability to honour the invitation. The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, we are told, expressed misgiving about the attitude of the minister saying that it looked as if he was taking Parliament for granted, adding that the oversight responsibility of the House was not to be taken lightly at all. He warned that his side (Minority), was not ready to take any motion relating to the Ministry of Finance until the minister appeared before the House, adding that the minister’s failure to appear before the House meant he was avoiding accountability.
MAJORITY AND MINORITY LEADERS’ REACTIONS
On his part, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, made it clear that his side was demanding accountability in the interest of Ghanaians. He said the minister needed to come and account for an amount of GH¢9.7 billion COVID-19 expenses.
However, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, refuted the claim that the minister was running away from accountability, explaining that he needed some information from the technocrats concerning the expenses on COVID-19 for which he would need time to read through before facing the House. He said the minister wanted Parliament to reschedule his appearance to Wednesday, June 22, 2022, to enable him to come before the House and answer questions on all expenses on COVID-19.
FINANCE MINISTER FINALLY REPORT TO THE HOUSE
True to his words and assurance, the Finance Minister made an appearance on the stipulated date to respond to the various questions from the parliamentarians.
According to the minister, the government had been transparent and prudent in the management of the COVID-19 funds and that all expenses were provided for in the last budget. Giving details, the minister said out of the GH¢18.19 billion the government mobilised from the various sources of funds in 2020, out of the programmed GH¢19.3 billion, GH¢12 billion was spent. He gave a total breakdown of how the moneys were received and expended which I do not intend to bore my readers with for lack of space.
SPEAKER ORDERS PROBE INTO COVID-19 EXPENDITURE
However, the Minority realised the inconsistencies in the figures as compared to what was contained in the President’s State of the Nation Address and called on the Speaker to institute an enquiry into the matter. It appears the Speaker has agreed to the Minority’s request and has directed the Committees of Finance and Health to investigate the expenditure and report to the House the first week of the next meeting of the House in October this year. It is the hope of Ghanaians that the committees will work diligently to ensure a vivid accountability of moneys so far invested in the management of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic which still rages on. Failure to do a good job will enable the international community which provided some of the funds to mitigate the situation during that period to lose confidence in us.
VIBRANCY AND POTENCY OF THE LEGISLATURE
It is now becoming increasingly clear that this particular parliament is no more the rubber stamp that it used to be in the past when things were done haphazardly or sometimes swept under the carpet. Parliament of today is indeed, biting because of the very nature of composition and the fact that the Speaker is coming from the major opposition party (NDC). The hung nature of parliament, with the Majority having the same numerical strength with the Minority,137-137 with one independent MP aligning to the majority side has instilled vibrancy in the Legislature and encourages dialogue and consensus building on various issues. So far, the Minority has been resolute and putting the Majority side on check. The Speaker has also stood firmly on his grounds making proceedings in the house very attractive and interesting. It is significant to recall an issue like the passage of the E-Levy, which went through some form of hectic moments because of the Minority’s stance on the issue before it was finally passed into law.
Judging from what is unfolding in our legislative arm of government, where issues are debated with clear minds and conscience by our parliamentarians under the effective guidance of the Speaker, it appears that the country is making a significant progress in our democratic experiment. This is a sign that if we continue on that path, we will surely and eventually make progress within the shortest possible time.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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