Battling Corruption in Ghana

The international media and the Western education system traditionally have conveyed Africa in a poor light. We have been led to believe Africa is only filled with corrupt officials and rebels, conflict and disease. The average Anglo may go out on a limb and assume there is an abundance of "diverse culture," funny-sounding languages, voodoo and animism and strange food, but that's not what makes the headlines, does it?

Not telling the entire truth, even if the truth given to you is skewed, is considered lying, right? (Ex-boyfriend from 2008, don't answer that.)

But thanks to top scholars such as Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Mariah Carey, Bono, Salma Hayek, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Paul McCartney, our minds have been opened to the possibility that there is much joy and happiness to be felt and shared in this continent.

Earlier this month the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) held a conference in the Central Region to engage the government, civil society, parliament and private sector in the development of an action plan against corruption in Ghana. CHRAJ has been conducting these consultative meetings in Ghana's 10 regions to spread awareness of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) and to make contributions and edits to its draft before submitting it to the Parliament at the end of April 2011.

The event took place at Elmina Beach Resort and attracted over 100 invited representatives of the Central Region's NGOs both local and international, the University of Cape Coast, social welfare, media, religious bodies and security members from the police, prisons and the Bureau of National Investigations (similar to the FBI).

But wait! Hold the phone. Where were our friends from Immigration? Or Customs? After all, this party was unanimously called to order because of them. (Read about one of my enchanting experiences with Immigration yet?) Yet, let's give them the benefit of the doubt - they must have had more important engagements to be all, you know, corrupt, and stuff.

In the keynote address, a CHRAJ director informed us that although Ghana is en route to becoming a well-oiled (seriously) democratic nation, a rising leader in tourism throughout Africa and in economic influence in West Africa, 42% of all households in Ghana paid a bribe in 2009. That's not including tourists.

Here is the breakdown of the bribe distribution, as found by this CHRAJ survey:

• 63% to the police
• 44% to the judiciary
• 32% to obtain registration and permits
• 29% to land services
• 20% to education authorities

I have only been in Ghana for nine months and have heard stories or personally experienced corruption in each of the sectors mentioned above. Come on, Atta Mills, this has been an issue since before the beginning of your term. Let's enforce some laws, here! Incidentally, although CHRAJ had been instructed to prohibit participants from discussing the president during the conference (hmmm), that didn't stop things from getting messy. During the question-and-answer series, one of the participants asked for the microphone and raised the point that it seems unfitting for the police to be listed in the NACAP as a corruption watchdog. Everyone laughed. (Flashback to when my boss went to the Cape Coast police station to file a report for one of our volunteers and the policeman on duty laughed and said, "O my sweet, you will need a friend in the police to work on that case.") Still laughing, the MC took back the microphone, walked over to the policeman and said, "That's a great question, why don't we ask the only policeman in the room for his thoughts!" Laughter again. The policeman looked down at his hands folded on the table and mumbled into the mic, "No comment."

Later we broke into groups of about 20 at random. Each group was given a question to answer, which would be included into the NACAP if relevant and worthy. We had one hour to brainstorm and record our answer. I really enjoyed observing my group. We had the I-feel-uncomfortable-being-here policeman, an articulate different-angle-viewing woman from some board of education, a sophisticated woman who, instead of contributing germane comments to the discussion, made remarks about how Ghanaians (our group, CHRAJ, Elmina Beach Resort staff) execute tasks ineffectively, an eloquent composed young man who eventually became our recording secretary, an obnoxious devil's advocate who threw his arms violently in every direction when he spoke, a sly woman whose careless body language did not match her bold statements and a nervous wiry guy who only spoke to report how much time we had left.

Where did I fit in? In this particular group setting, I assumed the role of moving the conversation along when we fell into lulls, or quarrels, more accurately. Whenever I added something to the discussion, the group quieted and listened and did not challenge. I hope to be challenged just as much as I hope to be agreed with, and usually I am not verbally challenged by Ghanaians. At least my interaction with my group wasn't resemblant of "The White Woman Has Spoken," which perhaps was not an issue because these were some of the brightest minds of the Central Region. By "brightest minds" I mean they thought for themselves. Some of the local NGO project partners I've worked with will say "no problem" when later, either through the grapevine or in a surprise meeting (verbal attack on our organization or employees, in some cases) I will sense that there really is a problem. Then why say "no problem?" My guess is because the education system in Ghana teaches students to please their superiors and to regurgitate what the teachers say. Only a fiercely independent mind, further education or travel outside of Ghana can amend these habits. When discussing issues of development, conversation always circles back to the malfunctions of the country's education system.

Here is the question my group was given:
What should be the role of the institutions in the implementation of the action plan?
a) civil society (NGOs, media, religious bodies, trade unions)
b) traditional authorities
c) private sector and contractors
d) the individual Ghanaian

The woman who complained about the ineffectiveness of Ghanaians pointed out that none of us knew the intended purpose of the action plan, so someone fetched a CHRAJ director and asked her to read us the outline of the NACAP. She kindly reminded us that the purpose of the action plan is to prevent corruption, reform institutions, strengthen the oversight responsibilities of anti-corruption institutions, implement public awareness and education and create an enabling environment to fight corruption.

With the NACAP purpose in mind, we were able to move forward. Our answer is below:
What should be the role of the institutions in the implementation of the action plan?
a) civil society (NGOs, media, religious bodies, trade unions) - raising awareness through education, publicizing, raising funds, building capacities, serving as community watchdogs
b) traditional authorities - creating and obeying rules and regulations, implementing sanctions and rewards for acts of integrity (durbars and festivals), improving record-keeping, simplifying internal processes
c) private sector and contractors - desisting and reporting all corrupt activities, forming associations to protect citizens
d) the individual Ghanaian - adopting and encouraging a change of attitude toward corruption (it should not be commonplace), educating others (word-of-mouth), creating and partaking in anti-corruption institutions, desisting and reporting corrupt activities

When we reconvened in the conference room, our recording secretary presented our report to the rest of the participants. The CHRAJ director said our group had unearthed some details missing from the NACAP draft, and they would make sure to include those points in the edited version. Feels pretty cool to be able to contribute to Ghana's first anti-corruption action plan.

It was a collective belief among our group and the rest of the conference attendees that the biggest roadblock for the NACAP would be fear of retaliation against those who report acts of corruption. Anonymity will save reputations and maybe even lives. Apparently there is an anti-corruption hotline for this reason, but the CHRAJ director did not have the number memorized or with him. (Ha.) He promised to e-mail us after the conference the hotline phone number and the opening PowerPoint presentation.

As promised, he e-mailed the PowerPoint presentation but forgot to include the phone number. Oh well, at least the presentation is an interesting read.