Govt Dodges UN Anti-Corruption Convention, But...

The Executive Secretary of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local branch of Transparency International (TI), has revealed that the Ghana government failed to show up at the Mexican city of Merida to sign the United Nations Convention against corruption last month.

According to the GII Executive Secretary, Mr. Daniel Batidam, the UN required every member country to be represented by top government executives such as the President, the Foreign Minister or the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for the signing and possible ratification of the convention. In Ghana, the President had mandated the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, to attend the ceremony and sign on behalf of Ghana.

The signing ceremony took place between December 9 and 11, last year. In all, about 100 countries were represented at the signing but 95 countries actually signed with Kenya being the only and first country to sign and ratify immediately. According to Mr. Batidam, UN regulations require a minimum of 30 countries to ratify the convention to bring it into force.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Batidam said: “From my point of view, the absence of Ghana was disturbing since Ghana is seen as the torch bearer in the democratization process within the African Continent. It is very worrying that government failed to turn up for such an important convention.”

In a telephone interview with The Chronicle yesterday, Paapa Owusu Ankomah admitted that Ghana was not represented at the signing ceremony even though he was mandated by the President to go and sign on behalf of the Ghana. Hon. Ankomah explained that he could not make the trip to Merida because it was getting to the end of the year and he had problems with airline connection.

If he had gone, he would have arrived a day after the conference. “We will mandate our UN representative to go and sign on behalf of Ghana because it will be deposited at the UN headquarters and we shall sign it.”

Mr. Batidam told The Chronicle that all of Ghana’s major development partners such as the World Bank and the IMF were present at the convention and made very forceful statements to the effect that any country, which was genuinely committed to the fight against corruption, should sign it. “Ghana’s absence leaves us in doubt as to whether it takes the fight against corruption serious,” he said, and wondered whether government had any reservations about certain provisions of the conventions.

“For example, the Convention requires the establishment of anti-corruption bodies and enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. There is also the requirement for the prevention of corruption in the Judiciary and public procurement.”

Mr. Batidam also noted that Ghana’s absence was even more worrying in the light of the fact that TI’s recent Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which was launched late last year revealed that corruption was on the rise in Ghana. The GII Executive Secretary said the revelation from the CPI report indicated that not much had been done by the government in spite of its zero tolerance for corruption declaration.

Mr. Batidam said that reactions from high level government officials in respect of the CPI report and other comments on corruption from the President were disturbing. Referring to a recent statement by the President that corruption was a global issue and man by nature was corrupt, Mr. Batidam said that it appeared that the government had thrown in the towel in the fight against corruption.

“When the President says that there is corruption in Japan, United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA), my question has been whether the President is aware that in spite of the corruption in those countries, there is still development because they have checks and balances to contain corruption and that they do not come to us for loans,” he said.

Mr. Batidam said that it is for these same statements that he thought that the government should have attended the signing ceremony because it was explained that corruption is a development issue and that the fight against it is a fight against poverty. “The government would have understood that poverty in Japan, UK or USA is infinitesimal poverty as compared to a country like Ghana which is a highly indebted poor country,” he said, adding: “It is for this reason that we have to be more serious in fighting corruption than these countries”.

Commenting on the government’s approach to dealing with corruption, Mr. Batidam said even though certain ex-government officials had been imprisoned for corruption, government’s approach to combating corruption basically weighed more on the curative side rather than the preventive. “We are concerned that after three years, we have not seen much to the credit of the government in terms of corruption and hope that with the little time they have, they can do better” he said.

Mr. Batidam cautioned that if Ghana as a nation fails to combat corruption, “our whole democracy will lose its legitimacy”. According to the highlights of the UN Convention against corruption, member countries were also required to widen the definition of crime and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of corruption.

This, according to the UN, not only included basic forms of corruption, such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds but also the trading in influence and concealment and ‘laundering’ of the proceeds of corruption.

Other aspects of the convention deal with international cooperation and assets recovery, a requirement which is dear to the hearts of most African and developing countries.