Arthur K: EX-GRATIA SHENANIGANS

Arthur Kobina Kennedy, the author

I have been watching and listening to the raging debate on ex-gratia with increasing despair and frustration.

It says a lot about our nation’s priorities and the concerns of the ruling classes that with so many problems, our nation is as pre-occupied with something as insubstantial as this.

The ex-gratia issue has politics, hypocrisy, greed, bad judgment and conflict of interest all written over it.

Let us begin with politics.

This ex-gratia stuff is not new. In 2001, departing NDC government officials had all ridden off into the sunset with their ex-gratia. From Former President Rawlings to the lowliest DCE and including the then Vice-President and current President, nobody saw anything wrong with it. So how come that this time round, they have a problem with it? The answer is politics. The public has become more aware of what our leaders are doing and are applying heat. That is why in a supreme act of pandering, the President is pretending that he is reviewing the ex-gratia when in fact, he has no authority to do so.

This of course brings up hypocrisy. Why are the same people who happily took their ex-gratia in 2001 now feigning outrage that others are also taking away something too? If ex-gratia is so wrong, why don’t they return what they got?

The next issue is greed. How many times must a person be entitled to ex-gratia in his life? Once? Ten times? How much is enough? It is ironic that the same politicians who preach sacrifice when they negotiate salaries with teachers and others suddenly remember how hard they work when it comes to rewarding themselves. I think that politicians get the argument mostly wrong. The question is not what they deserve. Of course, they deserve a generous retirement. But so do teachers and doctors and carpenters and everybody else. The question really is what the nation can afford. Take Presidents Rawlings and Kufuor, for instance. Mr. Rawlings led us for 18 years, the last eight as an elected President. So if he retired with eighteen or so vehicles and three houses, so what? President Kufuor got us debt forgiveness of over four billion USD and in the process, became perhaps the most travelled Ghanaian in our history. So if he retires with two houses, six cars and three months paid vacation a year, what is wrong? What is wrong is that we are a poor country that relies on the generosity of others to balance our budget. We cannot afford those luxuries for our leaders. They need to retire in dignity but that dignity can be a little more modest. Haba!!!

The next issue is conflict-of-interest. It is inappropriate for a President to form a Committee of his friends to make recommendations on what he should take away into retirement. We need such decisions to be made by people, not appointed by the President and thus not subject to his influence.

The next thing is really a question of judgment and appropriateness.

I do not understand why in 1996, retiring MP’s could buy their bungalows when in the very next month; Ghana had to pay for hotels to house them. I do not understand how we do not have a cap on how much should spent in decorating house of the Speaker or any other official.

Last week, I heard someone defending what the Speaker took away by citing what the clerk of Parliament took away. Who is supposed to lead who? Should the Speaker not be leading and setting the tone for the Clerk and even the lawmakers?

The next thing I have noticed is that here in Ghana, the powerful lack contrition. Nobody ever admits to making a mistake. There has been a scandal in Britain over claims for re-imbursement for members of Parliament. As a result of that there have been a lot of apologies by lawmakers and even some resignations. Why is it that nobody has apologized here? Is because our politicians are infallible or is it because they are arrogant? I look forward to the day when politicians here, just like in Britain, can admit their faults and apologize to us for those faults.

All in all, we must get this ex-gratia thing behind us by doing the following.

First, we should all go by the Greenstreet report and amend it once a decade through a committee of people who do not stand to benefit from it.

Second, over the long term, we must reform our pension system and include our politicians in it so that we stop giving the impression that politicians matter more to our country than say teachers or nurses.

Third, our politicians must exercise good judgment. There are things that may be permissible by law but wrong. They must be guided by good practices and their conscience because we cannot legislate everything.

Fourth, our leaders must learn to take responsibility for mistakes and show contrition.

An apology is a very important part of redressing wrongs.

Fifth, we the public must stop politicizing everything. When we defend things because they are done by our party leaders and condemn them because they are done by our opponents, we are betraying our nation and our conscience. Wrong is wrong and right is right.

Let us move forward, together and build for ourselves and our children, a better Ghana.