Public officials abuse power for selfish interests – GII Boss
Despite recent democratic improvements in many African countries, public officials continue to abuse power for their own benefits resulting in political instability.
“In many countries, public officials have tried to justify the lack of strong anti-corruption measures by arguing that their priorities are on building and sustaining peace, forgetting that lack of transparency, integrity and accountability has often resulted in instability,” Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), said on Tuesday.
Mr Azeem, who was speaking at the on-going 2013 Africa Public Service Day Celebration in Accra, said corruption, if allowed to continue, would drastically undermine Africa’s developmental and poverty reduction efforts as well as the race to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The week-long programme, which is on the theme; “Africa Public Service in the Age of Open Government: Giving Voice to Citizens,” is being attended by Africa ministers of public service, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, academia, and identified student bodies.
Mr Azeem said it would be an irreparable indictment on the Public Service in Africa if governments did not deliver satisfactorily what citizens required from them in terms food security, shelter, basic social services and jobs for the teaming youth.
According to him, access to quality social services is being hampered by poverty, limited resources and opportunities.
This is worsened by lack of transparency, accountability and integrity in the public service set up to manage state resources in the interest of the citizen.
He said when a country enhanced transparency, accountability and integrity; it would then be better placed to deliver effectively to its citizens and also give its citizens good governance.
Governance, he noted, required a bureaucracy imbued with professional ethos, an executive arm of government that is accountable for its actions, and a strong civil society participating in public affairs all under the rule of law.
Mr Azeem was of the view that performance of public service in Africa was below average because if that was not the case the continent would not be looking at enhancing transparency, accountability and integrity.
Ensuring an accountable public service, he said, required an appropriate legal framework that was enforceable and also spelt out what was expected of the public service and its actors.
He said there should also be a code of conduct for public officers that were legally enforceable and ethical codes of conducts that promoted the values of impartiality, objectivity, integrity, efficiency, effectiveness and discipline of public servants.
This is most in important when acting in the public interest in general and when exercising discretionary powers in particular, he said.
Mr Johannes Koku Nyagblordzro, Executive Chairman, Center for Africa Development and Progress (CADEP), said how leaders came into political office should be of concern to all.
“Africa should put hypocrisy behind it, stop deceiving ourselves, change negative attitudes, walk the talk and correct the wrongs which now seem right,” he said.
He said if Africa did not shape its destiny, it would continue to suffer.
Mrs Bridget Katsriku, Chairperson of the Public Services Commission, called on politicians to stop promising what they could not deliver during elections.
She entreated public servant to empower the citizenry with the right knowledge to enable them to become responsible.
Mrs Katsriku said politics had eaten deep into almost every fibre of society and that when civil servants advised politicians on the way forward for the country they read other meanings into it, especially when there was the suspicion that they belonged to rival party.
The Africa Public Service day is aimed, among other things, to give recognition to working conditions of quality men and women who devote their lives to diligently serve the African citizens.
Source: GNA