THE drama that unfolded at the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Tuesday and Thursday between the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, on one side, and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), on the other, has many useful lessons for all of us which we cannot gloss over.
We recall that on Tuesday when the Attorney-General appeared before the committee to respond to queries about the delay of his outfit in prosecuting Nicholas Sakyi for allegedly embezzling ¢4.3 billion, he absolved his outfit of any wrongdoing and laid the blame squarely at the doorstep of the BNI. Indeed, he blamed the BNI for conducting inconclusive investigations into the matter.
Forty-eight hours later, however, the Attorney-General capitulated when he stated categorically that the “missing” docket had been found and that it had been with his department since September 2006.
He did not stop there; he proceeded to render an unqualified apology to the BNI for misinforming the PAC that his ministry was not in possession of the docket.
The minister noted that he had been misled by his officers who were in charge and, therefore, he had not known that the BNI had returned the said docket to his office. Mr Ghartey also apologised to the PAC and assured the committee that he would take over the prosecution of the case from the police because of its serious nature.
The Daily Graphic is happy that the embarrassment and controversy between the A-G’s Department and the BNI has finally been put to rest. We are also equally gratified that the integrity of the BNI which had been impugned in the heat of the exchanges has been restored.
But, above all, we are really impressed with the way the Attorney-General discharged himself when he realised that he was wrong. It is said that the mark of true humility lies in the ability of a person to say “sorry” when he/she is wrong and we think, on this occasion, Mr Joe Ghartey scored full marks.
One difficulty we have as Ghanaians and Africans, for that matter, is our inability to apologise whenever we are caught on the wrong foot. We resort to passing the buck when a simple “sorry” would resolve the matter.
But we can change our world. We can make our world a much better place if we insist on doing things the lawful way instead of the hurtful way. And this must start with the individual.
Having said that, the Daily Graphic would like to join the call on the Attorney-General to prosecute all those found by the PAC to have embezzled state funds to demonstrate that our laws can, indeed, bite.
We strongly believe that moving the proceedings of the PAC from hearings in camera to public sittings is a clear demonstration of the resolve of all governance institutions to improve financial management practices in the public sector and this is the time to concretise it.
It is unfortunate that some politicians are, as usual, making a feast of the revelations from the PAC, but we can only make progress if we purge the exercise of witch-hunt and partisan politics.
After all, the rot in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) did not start only yesterday. Successive governments tried to deal with it, albeit unsuccessfully. It is our collective responsibility now to find a lasting solution to the challenges and everybody must get involved.
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