Resource-rich African nations suffer governance gaps

Read Comments Comments (3)

• MMOBOROWAH 11 years ago

  Governments of the two main political parties in Ghana shy away from the Freedom of Information Act. When in opposition they promise to enact but they drag their feet once they assume office. How can there be transparency a ...
  read full comment

  Governments of the two main political parties in Ghana shy away from the Freedom of Information Act. When in opposition they promise to enact but they drag their feet once they assume office. How can there be transparency and eschew corruption?

  reply
• Pelicles 11 years ago

  It is a deliberate attempt by the "educated and the elite" in resource-rich African nations to govern poorly.
  
  The laws are there so, what is preventing them from upholding those laws? We have people who have this stupid i ...
  read full comment

  It is a deliberate attempt by the "educated and the elite" in resource-rich African nations to govern poorly.
  
  The laws are there so, what is preventing them from upholding those laws? We have people who have this stupid idea that just being educated, is a recipe for them to "act in anyway possible" by sidestepping the law yet, they wish the law should be applied to the poor and downtrodden. Isn't this hypocrisy?
  
  Ghana, for instance, have the laws in the book that every government appointee, should declare his/her asset upon assuming office and what do we see? None of these people including the president himself have declare his asset.
  
  Call for transparency and accountability and they will "grin" just to show the entire world that they have "thirty two teeth" in their stinking mouth.
  
  I have on numerous occasion that the revenue from Ghana's oil, will never be seen by those living in the hinterland. Politicians, the educated elite etc, will share the revenue among themselves because they know that the average Ghanaian will never resort to any violent act to demand anything from them.

  reply
• Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

  Thieving governments in sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations could care less about information; they care about living large.
  All we need in SSA nations is lessons on how to write, what in the project management world, is call ...
  read full comment

  Thieving governments in sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations could care less about information; they care about living large.
  All we need in SSA nations is lessons on how to write, what in the project management world, is called Request for Pricing or Proposal (RFP), Request for Information (RFI) or Bid packages. It is through these project tenders that every SSA nation is being royally schooled and screwed by their respective citizens, nationals with foreign interest backing and the raping of resources in SSA nations. If and when we learn how to write these project documents correctly that will stand legal challenges we will all know how much projects cost prior to contract awards and work commencement in respective nations. It will also clue us in on how long it will take to complete projects and what the penalties are if vendors/contractors to complete projects on schedule. There are some who would jump to say we do practice same in Ghana except there is no contractor or vendor that has ever paid a dime to Ghana’s government on shoddy work, failure to meet completion schedules and or cost overruns. In fact there is not a single road construction in Ghana that ever was completed on time, on the money and or on quality workmanship and product.
  For example, we have had people steal and mismanage government monies from J.J Rawlings era through the current man in the office. In nations where people, organizations and government agencies understand the term being responsible with tax payer money, every project above some minimal amount has to have more than five (5) participating vendor express and submit their price packages to the process to be deemed legitimate and or move forward. Projects that may cost above some predetermined amount are put out for public bids. Every piece of detail about the job, from equipment, parts and supply specifications are provided (sometimes calling they include brand names and model) the time line for completion of the job or in phases and a mandatory requirement of the winning vendor providing the government or awarding party an insurance certificate worth at least 25 percent (%) of the contract amount to be held should in case there is a breach of contracted work by the vendor. These are small steps worth taking to minimize Ghana's insatiable appetite for stealing and or fund mismanagement by our political leaders.

  reply