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Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at CDD Ghana, has criticized the lack of accountability for public officers, asserting that it has resulted in widespread unaccountability. He stated on Joy News’ PM Express, “We have created a system where there is really no incentive for accountability. There is no incentive for you to restrain yourself when you have to make decisions that can be reckless and completely impoverish people, like what we have done with Domestic Debt Restructuring and destroyed people’s savings.”
Dr. Asante pointed out that public officers often evade accountability because “when their time is done, they just walk away,” highlighting a major flaw in the country’s accountability framework that requires urgent reform. He also condemned the ineffective oversight of government expenditures by Parliament, particularly through the GIFMIS system, which is intended to regulate financial transactions. He questioned, “What is the incentive for the Finance Minister to put all transactions through GIFMIS if Parliament only makes Appropriations but does not put a conditionality for all transactions to go through the system?”
Dr. Asante emphasized the need for robust accountability mechanisms within the political system, arguing that without appropriate incentives, it will be difficult to address ongoing issues. He remarked, “People are not angels, so if they fail because the political party is corrupt or has created a corrupt culture, we cannot expect that somehow, they will carry that through the office when appointed and become angels.” He stressed that any effective reset must include proper incentives for accountability.
Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, a former UN Senior Governance Advisor, compared the challenge of achieving reform to “looking for a needle in a haystack.” He expressed skepticism about the feasibility of change within the current political context, noting, “We cannot even change because the constitution has created this system, and we respect that. The people who have been elected to operationalize the constitution claim to be working based on the constitution.”
Prof. Agyeman-Duah argued that reform cannot depend solely on the political elite and called on the masses to advocate for change. He suggested, “I see a real need to reform the constitution in the first place to reform the way we do our politics and the way we govern ourselves. Inherent in the current structures are the challenges that are being discussed.” He also noted that the president holds almost unlimited powers, which need to be decentralized to empower local communities and districts, thereby laying the groundwork for genuine democratic practice. He concluded, “We are practicing democracy at the top and neglecting the bottom, which is the true meaning of democracy.”
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