As political parties finalise their 2024 election manifestos, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has challenged them to ensure their promises to combat corruption are clearly reflected in these policy documents. The coalition has, consequently, proposed a number of anti-graft issues they expect the political parties to show commitment to in their manifestos before they launch them in the coming days. The proposals include an amendment of the Political Parties Act, formulation of a law to regulate campaign financing; passage of the Conduct of Public Officers Bill and expansion of the legal definition of corruption.
The others are measures to ensure financial independence for anti-corruption institutions; stance against vote buying; improving public procurement practices and proactive disclosure of information by government agencies. The Executive Director of the Coalition, Mrs Beauty Nartey, who said this in an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra, yesterday, said these proposals if implemented would help strengthen Ghana’s anti-corruption efforts. With about five months to the 2024 elections, the various political parties are putting finishing touches to their manifestos for launch in the coming days.
The National Democratic Congress yesterday launched its youth manifesto ahead of the outdoor of its main policy document while the New Patriotic Party would launch its version over the weekend. Explaining the need amendments to the Political Parties Act, Mrs Nartey said the current law lacked a broader disclosure requirements, as it requires only parties to provide their audited accounts to the Electoral Commission. She said, this, excluded the presidential and parliamentary aspirants and their campaign teams, who often times are recipients of the campaign funds especially from foreigners.
By broadening the disclosure requirements, she said the financing of political party activities regime would be more transparent and in a long run curb interferences by foreign sponsors. Closely linked to this, is the proposal for campaign finance regulation, whereby Mrs Nartey, citing the escalating costs of elections, expressed concern about the potential exclusion of qualified candidates due to financial constraints. “Look at the cost of election now.
It’s becoming absurd. It’s in the interest of the political parties to ensure that these things are regulated because if you get to a point, qualified persons may not be able to compete fairly, may not be able to compete in a manner that they can win because once money becomes the influencer of votes, it becomes a challenge,” she said. Regarding the Conduct of Public Officers Bill, she said it was important in order to ensure effective asset declaration and address conflicts of interest and the current system’s inadequacies.
“The asset declaration regime we have now is not robust. Because it does not have verification. It does not also provide the opportunity for monitoring of the declaration,” he said.
Mrs Nartey called for an expansion of Ghana’s legal definition of corruption to align with international standards, particularly the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). “Our definition currently is narrow. So if you recall what happened with Cecilia Dapaah.
We don’t even have a clear definition of corruption. We have corruption as how it manifests.” To strengthen anti-corruption efforts, Mrs Nartey proposed ensuring financial independence for relevant institutions and suggested a direct budgetary process through Parliament.
The coalition emphasised the need for political parties to commit to eliminating vote buying, not just in manifestos but in practice, adding that the coalition would monitor the upcoming election. On public procurement, the GACC Executive Director, called for more efficient and competitive practices, particularly making single-source procurement an exception and not a norm. She also stressed the importance of proactive information disclosure by government agencies to improve transparency and reduce corruption perceptions.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR.
