EVERY country or community puts in place the reward system to motivate the people to live above reproach.
The sanction mechanisms have also been put in place to serve as a deterrent to those who have no regard for rules and regulations.
It is difficult to fight crime if equality before the law is sacrificed. The end result is that some people have the erroneous impression that justice is available only to the highest bidder. This way, we demonstrate our insincerity to the rule of law.
In a society where we are not bold enough to question the sources of income of the well-connected, the fight against corruption is lost even before it begins.
Corruption in high places and in all spheres of national endeavours undermines the prospects for economic development.
It is against this background that the DAILY GRAPHIC endorses the call on the country’s leadership to strengthen the compensation package in the various public sectors if the fight against corruption is to succeed.
Dr Kofi Amoah, a Ghanaian business executive, has stressed that “we must be engaged and encouraged to travel the path of progress by our own sincerity to the practice of good governance and not its slogan”.
A journey down memory lane will show vividly how as a nation we have been attracted to slogans rather than demonstrating by word and deed that there is the political will to fight corruption.
The use of one’s position for personal gain is widespread among public servants who interact regularly with ordinary citizens.
The police, customs officers and civil servants with the Registrar-General’s Department, Birth and Death Registry, Lands Commission and insurance companies are prone to petty corruption.
The struggle against corruption has been weakened by the ineffectiveness of the checks and balances mechanism of the Legislature on the overwhelming power of the executive arm of government.
Even the media and civil society groups, which are two formidable forces in the fight against corruption, have not been spared the institutional deficiencies that weaken efforts at promoting national integrity, making the citizens cynical and the ordinary people disinclined to fully participate in the war against corruption.
While we intensify the fight against corruption, the DAILY GRAPHIC thinks a more pragmatic approach will be an enhanced reward package for all workers in the country so that they will not “pretend to be working”, but work hard to earn their incomes.
We must also strengthen the institutions of state so that they will be able to safeguard the public purse on behalf of the people.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls for the strict enforcement of anti-corruption laws against offenders in high places as an affirmation of our faith in the principles of equality before the law.
This is the only way that majority of the people will be convinced that the highly corrupt will not be untouchables, to give expression to the dictum that the “law is no respecter of persons”.
Let the laws on corruption bite hard enough to serve as a disincentive to criminals.
No comments:
Post a Comment