Kofi Bentil urges public servants to be firm

Vice-President of IMANI Ghana, Mr. Kofi Bentil, has deplored the tendency of appointing authorities to coerce heads of institutions to undertake improper actions relating to their line of work. To him, it is a sign of bad governance practice.

Mr Bentil was speaking to the issue of the murkiness surrounding the sale of a drillship belonging to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The Discoverer 511 was sold for US$24 million to defray US$19.5 million indebtedness to French Bank, Societe Generale, in 2001. However, US$3.5 million of the proceeds can still not be traced.

A former Chief Executive Officer of the GNPC, Dr. Amos Ofori Quaah, on Wednesday told the Judgment Debt Commission which is probing the matter that the ship was sold despite the absence of any court order for the payment of any judgment debt.

Dr. Quaah also said he was merely asked by Deputy Minister of Energy at the time, K. T. Hammond, to sign a power of Attorney for the ship’s sale.

At the time, Ghana was entangled in an arbitration tango with Societe General in a London Court.

An out-of-Court settlement process was simultaneously rolled out back home in Ghana between the two parties.

“…Eventually, the ship had to be sold to pay off the indebtedness of GNPC. Apparently, as a result of the hedging, GNPC was indebted to Societe Generale to the tune of US$40 million, with 7 million in interest and cost, so a total of 47 million dollars,” Dr. Quaah told the Commission.

Contributing to a panel discussion on PeaceFM’s “Kokrokoo” Morning Show, Kofi Bentil strongly voiced out his disapproval of politicians dictating to and manipulating public servants to achieve their selfish ends.

“From a policy point of view…what occurred regarding the drill ship saga appears to be a common trend. Firstly, government sets up an agency such as the GNPC, but it will turn out later that it’s affairs are being controlled from the Castle (seat of government)…in this (drill ship) case, a deputy minister is reported to have sold off the asset without even the knowledge of the hierarchy of the GNPC. In terms of good governance, this is improper….maybe that might have been how it’s always done, but I say it’s not right. So for me, if we are to conduct investigations into this without changing any of these bad governance practices, then its money poured down the drain…."

Mr Bentil opined that irrespective of the fact that there is an appointing authority, sometimes public servants need to boldly stand their ground and be guided by their professionalism by not allowing themselves to be induced to implement politically-contrived directives. He pointed out that there is the option of resigning to maintain one’s integrity.

“It makes the heads of such institutions emasculated with no authority to operate efficiently…Forget about the fact that a higher authority put you there, but that does not mean succumb to them when you rightly believe what you’re being asked to do is improper. If the person who appointed you feel he can do a better job than you, let him come and take over responsibility from you officially. If you are being pressurized to do something you consider unprofessional, just bail out,” he proposed.

Whiles lauding the setting up of the Judgement Debt Commission, particularly the “objective of getting to the bottom of some of these dubious judgment debt payments”, he stressed that “it should not just rest with the issue of the Drill ship,” adding that the state must implement recommendations of the Sole Commissioner, retrieve monies paid wrongly and punish anyone found guilty.

“If you take the amount of money involved (in the Drill Ship saga) it’s not the biggest if you take the issues into consideration, it’s not unique…but are we learning from any of all these? All said and done, we need to go after this money and retrieve it… For me the setting up of the Judgment Debt Commission is great if we are to pick lessons from the revelations. Secondly, it’s good if anyone found culpable is dealt with according to the law. Thirdly, it’s good if we counsel ourselves….,” Kofi Bentil opined.