Public service not avenue for private money— K. B. Asante

By Edmund Smith-Asante, ACCRA

Mr K. B. Asante speaking at the lecture

A former diplomat and Minister of Education, Mr K. B. Asante, has called for immediate sanctions against corrupt state officials. “The public service is not an institution for private money making.

It should have rules and practices which weed out the indolent and corrupt,” he stated.

Mr Asante was sharing his thoughts on integrity, as one of five speakers at a public lecture held in Accra last Tuesday, dubbed “The William Ofori Atta Heritage Lecture.” It was on the theme; “Reclaiming our Values – Pursuing Character for National Development”.

Speaking on the theme, he said the future of national development would be bleak if Ghana let go its good values of pride, confidence and self-reliance and “parents expect the state to feed, clothe and supply needs like sanitary towels to their children”.

Mr Asante said to instil integrity in the Auditor General and Accountant General’s departments, they should be composed of qualified men and women who had advanced in the service by merit and they should not be appointed from outside as seemed to be the practice.

A former official of the World Bank, Dr Samuel Ofori Onwona, who spoke on the cost of the lack of financial integrity to national development, said according to the December 2014 annual report of the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), the developing world lost US$6.6 trillion in illicit outflows between 2003 and 2012.

He said in real terms, the outflows increased at 9.4 per cent every year and peaked to US$991.2 billion in 2012 after a brief slowdown during the global downturn.

The report ranked Ghana 93 among 145 countries with about US$3.2 billion in illicit financial outflows during the period.

Dr Samuel Onwona

Dr Onwona said sub-Saharan Africa topped the illicit flows list with an average of 5.5 per cent of GDP, while it averaged the same GDP growth of 5.5 per cent during the period.

“National integrity is built on the foundation of individual integrity, so if we are failing at the national level, let’s look inside and stop pointing fingers,” he said.

Dr Onwona said, “at the national level, we need a change of paradigm from over emphasis on smartness and high IQs to more and more emphasis on integrity. By our past heavy focus on smartness, we have built a society of very smart people who know how to beat the system.”

Call to accountability

A Director at the Institute of Local Government Studies, Prof. Akosuah Adomako Ampofo, asked Ghanaians to spend their energies on things that would benefit the country as the late William Ofori Atta did.

“Call leaders and others to accountability. When people have done the wrong thing it is up to us to let the consequences go through. If we are not prepared to be different we have no business whining,” she said. 

Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo at the lecture

Retired broadcaster, Mr Joe Lartey, who was the first to speak, called for attitudinal change to time and asked that it be made an essential part of the country’s development.

Mr Olivier Van-Parys, the Chief Executive Officer of Total, main sponsor of the lecture, said it was through its insistence on quality that the company had been able to build trust among its customers, partners and employees.

The Chairman for the occasion, the Okyenhene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, urged Ghanaians to speak out when they saw wrong doing in the society.

“When you see wrongdoing and you keep silent you are a guilty party to the wrongdoing. We are supposed to speak against injustice. Your voice may not be understood or recognised, but speak anyway,” he urged.

Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh 

This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on January 21, 2015