Law on financial loss is underutilised — Justice Appau

By Edmund Smith-Asante, ACCRA

Justice Yaw Appau delivering the keynote address

Upholding the law on causing financial loss to the state is one sure way of stemming financial loss to the state, Mr Justice Yaw Appau, Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, has said.

He noted that although arguments had been advanced on why the law must be shelved, they sounded romantic yet were "like fetching water with a cane basket that will not hold water."

Justice Appau was delivering the keynote address at the 30th Management Day Celebration lecture of the University of Ghana Business School, Legon, yesterday. It was on the theme: "Accountability and Corruption: Building the Integrity of Ghanaian Public Institutions."

Speaking on the topic "Promoting Public Sector Accountability in Ghana", he said “a lot of noise was made when the offence of causing financial loss to the state [as indicated in] Section 179 (A), 3(A) of Act 29 (60) was invoked in the Quality Grain case that saw two former ministers of state going to jail, with some people calling for its repeal.”

He, however, indicated his agreement with two university lecturers, Professors H. Kwesi Prempeh and Steven Kwaku Asare, who considered the law as one of the most important legislative legacies of the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic in the area of probity and accountability.

“If truly as a country we have solemnly declared to commit ourselves to probity and accountability and equality and justice as is expressly stated in our constitution, then it behoves all of us to hail this law on causing financial loss to the state that seeks to ensure that these qualities actually exist and apply in all our public dealings,” Justice Appau stressed.   

Sodom and Gomorrah, PAC recommendations et al

Justice Appau cited many instances in the country where state officials had not showed themselves accountable to the citizenry, such as the inability of the government to eject the slum dwellers at Agbogbloshie, popularly referred to as Sodom and Gommorah, although he, as a judge, had passed judgement in 2003.

He said Agbogbloshie was now the second filthiest habitation in the world,  while the continued stay of the squatters had not only stalled the Korle Restoration Project, but was making the country lose huge sums each day. 

“Twelve years on they are still there because of political expediency. The politicians say ‘when we eject them they will not vote for us,” he said.

Justice Appau also lamented that hawkers were still selling on the pavements in the central business district of Accra because the leaders were not being accountable and rather saying if the hawkers were driven away they would go hungry.

He also bemoaned the lack of sanctions in spite of the many recommendations that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor General had made after citing many instances of financial impropriety. 

Joining in the ongoing debate to separate the Attorney General’s office from the Ministry of Justice, he said, “An independent Attorney General will be in a better position to play the role effectively for Ghana.”

Justice Appau urged people in public office to show courage in doing the right things and damn the circumstances, to hold themselves accountable to the public.

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

This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on April 16, 2015