US embassy cable - 05ACCRA2427

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ACCRA 002427 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS FOR TREASURY LUKAS KOHLER 
USTR FOR LAURIE-ANN AGAMA 
USDOC FOR MARIA RIVERO 
MCC FOR ROD NORMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2015 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, GH, PGOV, PHUM, PREL, corruption 
SUBJECT: CORRUPTION IN GHANA II: FIGHTING BACK 
 
REF: ACCRA 2425 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Pamela E. Bridgewater for reasons 1.5 (B) AND 
 (D) 
 
1.  (C)  Summary:  Reftel looks at corruption in Ghana, and 
this cable examines efforts to tackle the problem.  Since 
President Kufuor came to office in 2000, Ghana has passed 
three anti-corruption laws, established an Office of 
Accountability in the presidency, allowed a more free media 
environment, and offered Ghana as the first country to 
undergo a Peer Review under the NEPAD Peer Review Mechanism. 
The GOG,s multiple anti-corruption agencies have had minor 
success.  Chief Justice Acquah has instituted important 
reforms in the judiciary to address judicial corruption. 
Civil society and the media are vocal on corruption issues. 
Nonetheless, anti-corruption efforts in Ghana have a long way 
to go and at times are seriously undercut by a lack of 
political will.  We can, and will play a greater role in 
helping the fight against corruption, which is key to all our 
MPP goals in Ghana.  End summary. 
 
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Government Talks the Talk 
------------------------- 
 
2.  (C)  In his inaugural speech in 2000, President Kufuor 
committed his government to "zero tolerance" of corruption. 
In meetings with the Ambassador over the past year, the 
President and Minister of Defense separately voiced concern 
about corruption allegations and affirmed their commitment to 
good governance, a message they also delivered in public 
remarks. On November 14, 2005 in a speech read by the Foreign 
Minister at an anti-corruption conference, President Kufuor 
said "I reaffirm my government's zero tolerance for 
corruption, and once again call on members of the political 
class, public service, civil society and the entire nation to 
accept the challenges so that we can collectively win the 
war".  He pointed out that the GOG has signed the UN 
Convention Against Corruption and plans to submit to 
parliament the African Union Convention on Preventing and 
Combating Corruption. 
 
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Government Anti-Corruption Institutions 
--------------------------------------- 
 
 
3.  (U)  The GOG has several anti-corruption institutions: 
 
CHRAJ:  The 1992 constitution mandated the establishment of 
the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice 
(CHRAJ) to investigate all allegations of corruption and 
misappropriated public funds, and to take countermeasures. 
CHRAJ also has a mandate as a human rights commission and 
ombudsman. 
 
The Police:  The Criminal Investigations Division (CID) of 
the Ghana Police engages in fighting corruption and economic 
crime.  On June 27, the police created a new unit, the Police 
Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS), to 
investigate public complaints and alleged malfeasance by 
police. 
 
SFO:  The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), under the Ministry of 
Justice, is charged with investigating and prosecuting 
offenses involving serious financial loss to the state.  It 
has expertise in detecting certain kinds of corruption and 
economic crime (such as procurement fraud). 
 
Office of Accountability:  In 2003, President Kufuor 
established this office within the presidency aimed at 
preventing corruption by political appointees in government 
and reinforcing a culture of transparency and good 
governance. 
 
4.  (C)  These institutions have had some success.  In 2004, 
the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigated 83 cases 
involving appropriation of state assets by public officials, 
tax evasion and procurement or contract fraud. This was 
markedly down from 117 investigations in 2003. Acting 
Executive Director T.A. Codjoe attributed this drop to 
declining resources. In the majority of these cases, the SFO 
either found no wrongdoing or is continuing to investigate. 
The official said the SFO is unlikely to bring down any top 
officials who condone, sanction or benefit from such 
corruption because his agency receives signals to cool such 
politically sensitive investigations, and that corrupt top 
officials operate through underlings to cover their tracks. 
 
5. (C)  CHRAJ is working on a Conflict of Interest Regulation 
as mandated by the constitution and plans to implement a new 
electronic case management system for corruption 
investigations.  CHRAJ is aided by oversight from the 
Accountant General,s office, the Auditor General and 
Attorney General,s offices.  The Accountant General's office 
has trained 10,000 people on anti-corruption laws.  The new 
Auditor General has quickly moved to improve the performance 
of his office, reducing backlogs.  In addition, the GOG 
created a new Ministry of Public Sector Reform.  In July 2005 
the Commissioner of Value Added Taxation fired a senior 
official for accepting a $30,000 bribe from a distillery 
company.  The Ghana Education Service has set up task forces 
to investigate reports of massive misappropriation of funds. 
 
 
6.  (C)  Nonetheless, the GOG,s anti-corruption institutions 
are under funded, understaffed, and lack adequate political 
will.  While they operate with some independence, they are 
also subject to political influence.  For example, the 
President appoints all SFO Board members.  The Director of 
the Auditor General,s office admitted in a recent workshop 
that the AG's independence is "a gray area".  The Accountant 
General rep noted that some public entities are outside the 
purview of their organization.  CHRAJ is run by an Acting 
Commissioner who has limited powers and can be easily fired 
by the President. The budgets of CHRAJ, the Auditor General 
and the Accountant General were cut by 40-50% last year, 
during a time of economic and budget growth.  Coordination 
between GOG anti-corruption agencies and other government 
entities is poor.  There is also some confusion about the 
mandates and roles of CHRAJ and SFO in fighting corruption. 
 
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Anti-Corruption Laws Weak 
------------------------- 
 
7.  (C)  Ghana's constitution and the 1998 Declaration of 
Assets and Disqualification Act require many public officials 
to declare their assets to the Auditor-General.  However, the 
Auditor General interprets the law as barring him from 
opening declarations except when compelled by formal 
investigation.  Neither the Auditor General nor CHRAJ have 
the power to verify the accuracy of the declarations. 
 
8.  (C)  In 2003, Ghana's parliament passed the Financial 
Administration Act, the Internal Audit Agency Act, and a 
Public Procurement Act to strengthen the anti-corruption 
regime.  Most observers believe that while these laws are 
generally adequate, they have not yet been fully implemented. 
 According to a recent analysis by The Ghana Integrity 
Initiative (the local chapter of Transparency International) 
the Public Procurement law is overly vague, especially for 
national procurements.  It is limited to small tenders, fails 
to establish auditing and oversight bodies as well as a legal 
definition of what constitutes bribery, and lacks adequate 
constraints on sole sourcing.  The Public Procurement Board 
is weak, with little staff and no permanent location, 
although it claims to have increased the transparency in 
public tender advertisements. 
 
------------------------ 
Chief Justice Speaks Out 
------------------------ 
 
9.  (C)  Chief Justice Kingsley Acquah has been very 
outspoken against corruption, especially in the judiciary. 
He published the judiciary's first-ever annual report in 
2004, which details efforts to modernize and improve 
transparency in the courts through automation, creation of a 
commercial court and Fast Track courts, and reforming 
magistrate courts.  The 2005 annual report focuses on the 
Supreme Court,s new Code of Ethics and its upgrading and 
expansion of the Court Inspectorate and Public Complaints 
Unit, which received four complaints about judicial 
corruption in June 2004-June 2005.  Despite this activism, 
corruption in the judiciary is tolerated.  Acquah has at 
times failed to show firm resolve against suspected corrupt 
judges and others in the judiciary, including the Director of 
the Law School, who is alleged to be involved in corrupt book 
importation. 
 
------------------------------- 
Civil Society Also in the Fight 
------------------------------- 
 
10.  (U)  Ghanaian civil society is vocal about corruption. 
The SFO and CHRAJ are members of the Ghana Anti-Corruption 
Coalition (GACC), which includes GOG and NGO organizations 
dedicated to fighting corruption through public advocacy and 
advocacy for legal reforms.  The Coalition continues to press 
for passage of long-pending Whistleblower's and Freedom of 
Information laws, and for adequate implementation of the 
Public Procurement Act and other 2003 anti-corruption 
legislation. (The Whistleblower bill is expected to pass in 
this session of parliament.) The Institute of Chartered 
Accountants, the Ghana Bar Association, and some business and 
religious leaders have also been outspoken in criticizing 
corruption. 
 
11.  (C)  The Kufuor administration's early decision to 
remove the criminal libel law (although there is still a 
civil libel law) has helped foster a lively media, which 
reports almost daily on alleged corruption.  NGO and media 
contacts tell Emboffs they generally feel free to probe and 
report on corruption allegations without political 
interference.  However, newspapers are under some political 
pressure to suppress stories about corruption.  The editor of 
the Enquirer, who has been very aggressive in reporting on 
high level corruption, told PolChief on November 25 that he 
has faced serious pressure from the president and his staff 
to back off of corruption stories, especially related to his 
investigation of the Confederation of African Football 
stadium deal (which implicates the GOG in accepting bribes 
from the Chinese) and the presidency's alleged use of 
procurement kickbacks to fund the ruling party.  He showed 
polchief pictures of a recent attack on his car that 
shattered a window.   He said his landlord is being pressured 
to evict him, his advertisers have been pressured to withdraw 
funding to his newspaper, and he fears for his safety. 
 
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What We Can Do 
-------------- 
 
12.  (C)  In 2004, we funded a successful anti-corruption 
cartoon campaign through our Democracy and Human Rights Fund. 
 We also used INL funds to provide computers to an Internal 
Monitoring Unit in the police and we gave limited support to 
anti-corruption efforts in Customs.  A significant step in 
the right direction is USAID/Ghana,s proposed $500,000 
Anti-corruption Reform Program, which is still in the design 
phase but is examining ways to support the Auditor General,s 
office, CHRAJ,s draft Conflict of Interest Regulation, 
public sector reform, and other anti-corruption measures. 
 
13.  (C)  We can do more.  Corruption impacts all of our MPP 
goals in Ghana and merits significant Mission focus over the 
coming year.  Post has made it a priority to raise corruption 
issues in meetings with GOG officials and in public remarks 
(as the Ambassador did several weeks ago at the November 7 
Consultative Group meeting.)   We will work with Ghanaian 
businesses and professional associations to strengthen their 
understanding of the economic costs of corruption, and their 
ability to advocate for change on this issue.  (Private 
companies, especially Ghanaian ones, are reticent to touch 
the issue both publicly and privately because they are 
heavily dependent on government business.) 
 
14.  (C)  We will also press the IMF, World Bank and other 
donors here to insist on greater controls and transparency in 
their transactions with the GOG. Ghana is rewarded heavily 
for good governance with debt relief and significant 
increases in donor funds, which may be signaling to the GOG 
that donors do not perceive corruption to be a problem.  We 
will look for ways to better leverage donor funding 
(including the MCA funds) to help combat corruption, through 
conditionality, strong oversight and anti-corruption 
components. 
 
15.  (C)  We will work with Washington to identify funding to 
support anti-corruption NGOs in Ghana, many of which are 
doing good work but are woefully under-resourced. Our efforts 
should focus on strengthening institutions and the 
implementation of existing governance laws.  We will also 
work to raise public awareness of corruption, to improve 
donor accountability, and to strengthen automation and 
transparency in government transactions.   We should 
reinforce positive steps from the government and those within 
the GOG -- such as the Chief Justice and the Minister of 
Finance -- who seem committed to fighting corruption. 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
16.  (C)  This is a critical time to press the GOG on the 
corruption issue.  Ghana has a real chance to develop into a 
middle-income nation, in part thanks to current high gold and 
cocoa prices, good macroeconomic management, and a rising 
flow of donor funds.  Corruption in Ghana is not yet 
regime-threatening or on a Nigeria scale.  However, while 
commending Ghana's economic and political successes, the USG 
should also register our growing concern that corruption 
could undermine economic development, investor confidence, 
democratic development and Ghana's international reputation. 
 
17.  (C)  The government seems to be slowly waking up to this 
concern, in part because of media and donor pressure.  As 
Anna Bossman, Acting Commissioner of CHRAJ recently stated, 
"Would anyone take Ghana seriously as we take up our seat on 
the Security Council, hold the chairmanship of ECOWAS or the 
AU if we are perceived by the world to be so notoriously and 
irredeemably corrupt?"  Recent press coverage suggests the 
GOG has become more aggressive about combating corruption at 
low levels.  Ghana has adequate anti-corruption laws and 
committed individuals in its anti-corruption institutions, 
but their resources are small in comparison to the problem. 
 
18.(C)  As Bossman and the Chief Justice have publicly stated 
in recent conferences, the fundamental problem in Ghana is 
lack of political will to tackle corruption.  The GOG's 
failure to sufficiently fund anti-corruption institutions, 
its reluctance to engage (or listen to) donors on corruption 
issues, and its tolerance of high level corruption has 
damaged its credibility.  President Kufuor retained three 
ministers in his second term who were held up during 
parliamentary vetting because of corruption allegations.  He 
was slow in responding to reports of his inappropriate 
involvement in the hotel purchase.  The GOG has not responded 
to opposition claims of widespread corruption involving HIPC 
funds.   All of this has the potential to hurt the ruling NPP 
party's chances in the 2008 national elections, and to deepen 
the long-standing complacency about corruption in Ghana, 
whatever the political leadership.  End comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BRIDGEWATER