HIPC Money been used for ROPAA - Palaver

OPEN LETTER TO GHANA’S DEVELOMENT PARTNERS

Dear Sirs/Madames

Last Friday, we published on page 2 of our paper how the NPP Government of Ghana has authorised the disbursement of US$48,698.00 of HIPC Funds to the Electoral Commission to undertake external consultation towards the implementation of the Representation Of the People (Amendment) Act (ROPAA).

We gave the details of the authorization documentation as follows:

Amount authorised: US$48,698.00

Authorising official: Prof. G. Gyan-Baffuor, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning

Recipient: Electoral Commission

Date of Authorisation: 21st September, 2007

Purpose: External Consultation towards the implementation of ROPAA.

In a previous correspondence between the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and the Director of Budget, letter No. DM/HIPC/094 of 11th September, 2007, the Minister of State at the Ministry, Dr. A. Akoto Osei, had confirmed to the Director of Budget that the EC had been certified to have fulfilled the requirements for HIPC (Poverty Related) Funds and therefore approved the amount of US$48,698.00 for immediate disbursement for the implementation of ROPAA.

Elsewhere in our paper today, we have reproduced photocopies of the correspondence referred to.

Our Dear Development Partners,

The arguments against the ROPAA in its present form, the danger the Act poses to our fragile democracy and the fact that it poses a “clear and present danger” to the acceptability of the results of the 2008 Ghana elections have all already been made, and that is not the purpose of our letter.

The purpose of our letter is to ask whether the implementation of a law to allow Ghanaians overseas to register and vote at their places of residence abroad is a poverty-related activity for which HIPC Funds may be committed.

We understand by HIPC relief that the taxpayers of your countries are foregoing monies that they are legitimately entitled to by agreeing that we should not repay loans that had been given us from their taxpayers’ monies. Do you think it was within their contemplation that such monies would be used to enable Ghanaian citizens living in their countries to vote in Ghanaian elections in your countries to determine the type of Government that Ghanaians should have?

There are other very important questions that we want to ask you:

· The amount of US$48,698.00 is only for “external consultation on the ROPAA”. After the external consultation, who funds the implementation of the ROPAA itself?

· According to records from the EC itself, your Governments fund 40% of the total cost of Ghanaian’s electoral bill. It is anticipated that ROPAA will almost double the cost of the electoral bill. Are your Governments ready, willing and able to double its assistance to Ghana for the 2008 elections?

· The Americans have a saying that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Why are your Governments not advising the Government not to tinker with the present electoral system that has delivered two different Governments for two four-year tenures?

Our Dear Development Partners, ECOWAS has set up an Early Warning System in the sub-region designed to trigger off warning alerts of possible conflicts in any part of the sub-region. We want to alert you as part of the early warning system that in Ghana, the conflict trigger for 2008 is the implementation of the ROPAA. If you do not do anything about it; nay if you allow your money (which is what HIPC Funds are) to be used for its implementation, and the conflict erupts, you will also have blood on your hands. You may take this as a friendly warning from a newspaper that knows the Ghanaian political terrain. We remain,

Ghana Palaver.