Report by Nana POKU
The Minority Leader in Ghana’s 9th Parliament, Hon. Kwamena Afenyo Markin has kicked against the isolation of political office holders as the bedrock of corruption in Ghana.
“We should look beyond the political arena as the ones when it comes to corruption in Ghana. This is because as a country, office holders go beyond politicians and we are all involved. I am not happy when the attention is focused solely on the political class and leave out the rest,” he said.
The Minority Leader was invited to review a lecture topic presented by the Special Prosecutor on the fight against corruption in Ghana at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on 28th February, 2025.
Mr. Markin, who is the Member of Parliament for the Efutu (Winneba) constituency told the crowd that when he became MP in 2013, some businessmen approached him to push their proposals and contracts for them to get approval from the House and ministries involved.
He indicated that those whose papers were pushed went to church in white apparels to thank God, but those whose were not, cried foul and labeled the regime as corrupt and derogated them.
“I was the Board Chairman of ECG so l proposed reforms for efficient revenue collection, but it was rejected by the management and some Board members.
“I saw Ghana Water Company sinking so l tried to salvage it but, l couldn’t because l was isolated and stopped,” he lamented.
Sometimes, according to him, some politicians are wrongly considered rich and corrupt but soon after leaving parliament, such people become very wretched and become virtual paupers.
“So the fight against corruption must concern every one instead of picking on the political class who may be misconstrued and misjudged,” he stated.
He asked for a mechanism to investigate the unexplained wealth of some public and even private persons if the suspicion is so rife and turgid.
“People must openly disclose their source of income, wealth and properties. Because elsewhere it is done so it can also be done here in Ghana,” he stated.
Dr Kwasi Prempeh, who also reviewed the topic, advocated for the country to intensify the punishment or sanctions against perpetrators to demotivate people from pursuing these goals of getting rich at all cost syndrome.
He said corruption is; C=M×O÷S.
Where C is Corruption equals Motive times Opportunities divided by the Sanctions (Punishment).
He intimated that if the opportunities are not there, there will be no corruption.
Or if the sanctions are very severe, the practice becomes unattractive or deterrent for practitioners to venture into it.
He said human beings, as we are always carrying good or bad motives, but measures must be put in place to obstruct or debar the wrong ones from latching onto the opportunities to spring aboard.
He told the participants that in some jurisdictions, measures and devices have been instituted to prevent easy access and opportunities.
He called on the Special Prosecutor to use the provisions in the constitution to tackle the menace since in his view they are enough to deal with the canker.
He however, called for the review of some of the laws of punishment dating back as far as the 1960s; especially the criminal code of 1962 and other penalties in our country.
