'Political investors' entrenching corruption – Kan-Dapaah

Institutions and individuals whose work is directly linked to elections – the Electoral Commission (EC), political parties, civil society organisations (CSOs), the media, etc., – have been urged to promote a system where there will be no “political investors” in order to reduce corruption to the lowest.

A former Minister of the Interior in the Kufour administration, , has noted that political investors are the main cause of corruption within political circles, largely because they want to recoup their investments with astronomical profit margins.

Contributing to a discussion on financing of political parties in Ghana on a local television station, GHOne on Wednesday June 8, he explained: “You want to avoid a situation where there emerges what you can call political investors in the country.

“They provide money for you to become the president, they provide money for you to become the District Chief Executive, they provide money for you to become the parliamentarian and clearly when you have won to become the president, when you are now the Member of Parliament, when you are now the District Chief Executive, he will expect to get his money back and we believe this goes to promote corruption in the country.”

The former Member of Parliament for Afigya-Sekyere constituency added: “Financing political parties is not the same as state funding for political parties. Financing political parties is for us to know about how the political parties are financed and it can be through donations that they get, it can be through so many other means, it can also be state funding”.

“Today in Ghana there is not any significant amount of state funding…we just want to find the best way of financing these political parties,” he said.

Mr Kan-Dapaah, who has retired from politics and is at the moment a CSO activist, further stated: “We really want to make sure that the financing is both transparent and is accountable. And that is why we are worried about it that let us find a way of funding the political parties such that it is both transparent and it is accountable,” he said.