Committee for Joint Action wants public service to be overhauled to fight corruption

Mr Kwasi Adu, Convener of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Tuesday stressed the need for Ghana to have a complete overhaul of the public service to reflect bold commitment to fight against corruption and maladministration.

He said the overhauling must reflect the weeding out of inefficient and corrupt elements.

Mr Adu made the call at a press conference in Accra to bring to the attention of the public findings in the report of the Auditor-General (AG) in the management of public service.

He noted that the 1992 Constitution stipulated the establishment of a financial tribunal to deal   with acts of corruption in the public service.

Mr Adu said although the Public Account Committee of Parliament gave the assurance that the setting up of such a tribunal was in the final stage, nothing had been done since.

The CJA observed that inefficiency, negligence, incompetence, dubious transactions and maladministration that were reported year after year by the AG continued to be repeated.

Mr Adu said the country is degenerating into a situation in which the AG reports are becoming mere paper exercises, which were cast aside by responsible public officials as soon as they were issued.

He stressed that the attitude of civil servants and politicians fuel the perception that they are at liberty to take the rest of the country for granted knowing that there would be no enforcement of the rules.

The CJA recalled that the previous Auditor General’s Report in 2010 indicated that employees on study leave without pay were being paid and as a result the State paid GHȼ228,026.22 to people who were not suppose to be paid.

The AGs Report in 2008 found that although in 2007 the bank records of the divestiture proceeds account indicated monies from divested State owned companies amounted to GHȼ159,394,684.90, which was not disclosed in the accounts made available to the AG.

In addition, in 2010 the divestiture proceeds, which amounted to GHȼ4,277,554.50, was retained in the operation account of the Divestiture Implementation Committee instead of being paid into the Consolidated Fund.

Mr Kwesi Pratt Junior, Editor of Insight Newspaper and a member of the CJA said if people allowed the country to lose so much money the law must take its cause and deal with the culprits.

He said if those responsible to take the appropriate action are not performing then it would be the right of Ghanaians to have their way.

Mr Pratt said Ghana needed a system to reward people who were committed and accountable for the State and punish people who took things for granted in the public service.

Source: GNA