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The Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, has urged Parliament to expedite action on the passage of the Code of Public Officers Bill into law, to combat corruption in the country.
He also called on the government to publish the Beneficial Ownership Register, which indicate the real owners of businesses and companies in the country, to make it accessible to the public.
Dr Asante made the suggestions at a programme dubbed ‘the media interface on Ghana’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout,’ in Accra, on Thursday.
Organised by the Economic Governance Platform, a civil society organisation, to educate the media on Ghana’s recent IMF bailout, the event was sponsored by Oxfam.
It was on the theme: ‘the 17th IMF bailout: What did Ghana sign-up for? Considerations for 2023 mid-year budget review.’
Dr Asante said the IMF raised the issue of corruption in its programme with the government, and said the passage of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers bill would help nipped the menace in the bud.
He said the passage of the bill into law would also address issues of conflict of interest, nepotism, favouritism, influence peddling, which influenced corruption.
Dr Asante entreated the Minister of Finance to outline the commitments and the progress the government has made in the implementation of the IMF programme, in the mid-year budget review.
Particularly, he said, the government should indicate the savings it had made from the fiscal consolation measures it had introduced as part of the IMF programme.
Dr Asante asked the media and the public to demand accountability from the government, to ensure that the country resources were properly utilised, to help address economic difficulties.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), Mrs Beauty E. Nartey, expressed worry that it was worrying that for a long time, the bill has not been passed, to regulate the conduct of public officers.
The Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr John Kwakye said Ghana was not a poor country and could rely on its natural resources to generate revenue to finance the country’s development needs.
Dr Kwakye said the country arrangement where foreign companies took about 80 per cent of the rent of the country’s natural resources was not the best.
The Executive Director of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Dr Charles Nyaba, entreated the government to put measures in place to address the increasing prices of food in the country.
He said the removal of subsidies on farm inputs and subsidies and fertilisers, was accounting for high prices of food in the country, adding that the prices of food would continue to rise because farmers would push their cost to consumers.
The Coordinator of the Economic Governance Platform, Mr Abdul Karim Mohammed, said the event was to explain the IMF bailout programme to the media and the general public, to help them appreciate it.
He said it was encouraging the government took some of the recommendations the Economic Governance Platform made in negotiating the IMF bailout programme into consideration, including the automatic tariff adjustment and the capturing of the energy sector debt as part of the national debt.
