Opinions of Wednesday, 29 August 2018

Columnist: Kwabena Achampong

Wake up people of Ghana!

File photo - Parliament of Ghana File photo - Parliament of Ghana

This is a very urgent call to Ghanaians to eliminate corruption in society. The flawed constitution has limited provisions to deal properly with corruption.

A few are profiting from corruption and a vast majority are poor and suffering.

IDENTIFIED AREAS OF CORRUPTION

The flawed constitution allows for 110 ministers. There is glaring nepotism and cronyism in presidential appointments.

The economy is mismanaged by corrupt, incompetent and greedy people. It is also in distress and disarray.

The Parliament is bloated (275 members) with corrupt and incompetent leadership, approves bad agreements and it is clueless in its mission. The Judiciary is allegedly corrupt (ANAS Video) incompetent, bloated and makes partisan decisions.

Education - The system is corrupt, mismanaged, abstract and lacks focus. Too many private universities with low standards in faculty, admissions criteria and incompetent graduates. Free SHS was implemented without proper planning and funding.

Sports- GFA and sports leaders are corrupt, incompetent, mismanage and lack clear focus for national teams (ANAS video)

Media - Too many half-baked journalists, corrupt, incompetent and partisan in all media outlets.

Security - General state of insecurity gives grave concern to the public. The government has failed to protect its citizens. The crime rate is on the rise.

Infrastructure - Managers are corrupt, incompetent and mismanage public projects.

There are huge deficits in areas of transportation, potable water, healthcare, energy and housing. The use of sole sourcing procurement policy leads to more corruption.

Healthcare - The system is broken, corrupt, underfunded and mismanaged.

Ethics - There is general decline of public probity, morality and accountability from top to bottom in all spheres of life.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

(1) Call for constitutional convention to address issues of governance, corruption, economy, insecurity, healthcare, judiciary, education and other issues.

(2) Parliament should pass Freedom of Information Act to achieve transparency in public affairs.

(3) Reduce bloated size of Parliament and set limit to presidential staffing and cabinet.

(4) Do not create new regions. Ten regions are enough.

(5) Abolish the Council of State. It is a waste of resources.

(6) Need for alternate developmental model e.g. South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China and Sweden.

(7) Need for accountability and probity in project design, implementation and funding in infrastructure development.

(8) Review of laws in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in mineral concessions, oil, gold, diamonds etc. ( Africa's Natural Resources and Underdevelopment )

(9) Judicial reform to weed out partisan and corrupt judges.

(10) Review executive compensation for certain senior government officials. There should be no retirement on full salaries for anyone.

(11) Media - Need to reform by insisting on educational requirements to inject competency and reduce partisanship in practice.

(12) Call for general accountability and probity among senior government officials, civil servants, religious, social and political leaders. Statement on workers

People in Ghana especially the workers are being abused, cheated, oppressed and cannot make ends meet. The laws should allow wider worker input to address their needs. All workers should organize properly to demand their rights.