A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Joshua Zaato, has traced the source of the increasing incidence of corruption in the public sector to political patronage.
He said if this practice is not curbed, the canker will continue unabated.
“The political people they think they have a birthright for a position in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). That culture has to be curbed. If we d on’t do that, then we are turning these SOEs into milking cows,” he said on TV3’s The KeyPoints on November 1.
He noted that, “there is another culture. If you are a public servant and you steal, we say ‘everybody chops at their workside’. The high-profile corruption cases are politicians, but we tend to trivialise corruption by public servants.
Dr Zaato further blamed the situation on poor management.
“What is happening now is due to poor management. Today, there are SOEs which do not have boards for 8 months. The board is supposed to guide you and approve all that you do. But these men and women are already working. Before the board comes in, the CEO will know more than you, and before realise you are just coming in to approve things,” he explained.
According to him, “the right thing is that the board is there, the CEO comes in and we approve you. So that is one area we have to look at to ensure that we do the appointment right.
His comments come on the back of revelations by the Attorney-General in relations to infractions detected at the National Signals Bureau, National Service Authority and National Food and Buffer stock Authority running into billions of cedis.
