Supreme Court Judge, Justice Yaw Appau says accountability can be promoted if Government strengthens and tightens institutional structures in the public service by putting in place control measures and ensuring that these measures are adhered to by all categories of public officials.
Speaking as one of the panelists at the 8th edition of the Leadership Dialogue Series organised by the Centre for Social Justice last week in Accra, he said Heads and other government officials must be held accountable for their actions or inactions that lead to financial and other losses to the State.
“They must be held accountable for the negative acts or inactions of their subordinates where they fail to hold such subordinates accountable for such acts or inactions,” he stated at the Dialogue Series held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
Justice Appau speaking on “Uprooting public sector and political corruption in Ghana”, he said in order to promote accountability, “employment letters of public office holders should clearly state the rules regarding their jobs and applicable sanctions (i.e. rules of engagement), including confiscation of financial benefits or gains, if and when it becomes necessary.”
“The laws put in place to ensure accountability in all public institutions and transactions are strictly enforced, particularly; The Financial Administration Act, 2003 [Act 654]; The Public Procurement Act, 2003 [Act 663] and most importantly, sections 179A and 179C of the ‘SPECIAL OFFENCES’ enacted as part of our Criminal Offences Act, 1960 [Act 29] to check acts of persons that cause financial losses to the State,” he stated.
According to him, there must be good Public Sector Record Management, lamenting that “Our record management is not encouraging.”
“It is regrettable to say that, though we have been working as a country to uproot corruption or in a better word, to minimize or curb it,…it gets worse by the day,” he pointed out.
Other panelists at the dialogue series were Mary Awelana Addah, Programmes Manager, Ghana Integrity Initiative and Manasseh Azure Awuni, Editor-in-Chief EIC, 4th Estate.
The Leadership Dialogue Series by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is the flagship civic education platform of the Centre to nurture mass political participation and patriotic values through intellectually stimulating discussions with prominent national leaders.
The CSJ is a platform of social change activists who are young professionals
with left of center political ideological sympathies, engaging proactively and deliberately in Ghana’s political space.
