Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Center for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante has observed that the virtually lack of accountability in Ghana’s politics is the main factor for the continuous mess of the economy.
Dr. Asante says the political class is emboldened to make wrong choices and decisions that negatively impact the socio-economic life of citizens because their actions carry no consequences.
Speaking on how Ghana’s socio-economic development can be accelerated through proper governance, the CDD fellow explained that since many politicians who have wronged the country are walking around freely and continuously drawing benefits, others are not gingered to prioritize the interest of the state and citizens in their decisions.
Citing a case to buttress his point, Dr. Asante says he cannot fathom why parliamentarians looked on for the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to go against the rule and financed the government causing a huge mess to the economy.
This action, he says has the potential of emboldening the next governors to take similar paths since previous ones were not punished.
“The Bank of Ghana basically violated its own and funded the government. Everybody in the finance committee knew. Everybody in parliament knew that this had been done and yet nobody has been held responsible. So what is going to prevent the next governor from doing the same thing if he comes to the same position?” he noted.
He further explained, “What is the deterrent effect to any politician that is elected or appointed to mess up the economy and just walk away free? Because after this year, whoever was involved in messing up the economy, they go home. Some of them are still going to get their ex-gratia I believe. So we have created a system where there is really no incentive for accountability.”
He is therefore calling for conscious efforts and actions that will address this weakness in Ghana’s political setup.
“No incentive for you to restrain yourself when you have to make decisions that can be reckless and can completely impoverish people like what we have done with all the haircuts, destroy people’s savings, and when you are done, you just walk away. There is something missing in the accountability structure that we need to address,” he stressed.
