Corruption surge: Perspectives on political patronage and sole-source procurement as cardinal drivers

By Maxwell Kpebesaan KUU-IRE

Corruption is a global scourge, wreaking havoc and negating progressive efforts toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Some observe that corruption exacerbates illicit financial flows.

All sectors of our society are not spared the influence of corruption,  including even the church of God which is supposed to be the citadel of righteousness. The never-fading topical corruption-related matters involving construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral is a case in point.

Some posit that the prevalence of corruption points to humongous dishonesty in Ghanaian society. Ghana took a significant step forward in 2018 by establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as a premier independent anti-corruption organisation.

It further passed and adopted the Right to Information Act 2019 (Act 998), which guarantees the constitutional right to information held by public institutions. However, despite these and other efforts, corruption continues to thrive – as evidenced by Ghana perennially scoring a low Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of forty-three between 2019 and 2023.

Regrettably, the 2024 Afrobarometer findings reveal a 77% increase in corruption perception in Ghana; reinforcing the averment that anti-corruption efforts and measures are not yielding the needed impact.

Political patronage and sole-sourced procurement

The search for corruption-surge drivers points to the deep-rooted influence of the pernicious, closely-knit cousins of political patronage and sole-sourced procurement, which create a self-reinforcing cycle of corruption.

Ghana’s political landscape is characterised by a patronage system, whereby political loyalty and familial relations are often rewarded with government contracts and positions.

The practice of “unmerited reward at all costs” usually leads to the incorporation of many new businesses that were hitherto non-existent or, at best, reviving dormant businesses whenever their favoured political party ascends to political power. Then, sole-sourced procurement becomes the channel for resourcing pre-picked companies without the scrutiny of competitive bidding processes.

Essentially, the Fourth Estate investigation on the SML contract with the Ghana Revenue Authority and subsequent KPMG audit findings epitomise corruption linked to political patronage and sole-sourced contracting. Other examples – including the botched Power Distribution Services concession, the Agyapa Royalties deal, and the president’s daughters’ involvement in the ambulance spare-parts scandal – further support this observation.

Moreover, the Auditor-General’s performance audit report  on the construction of cocoa roads revealed that “…out of the 266 road projects awarded, 33 were through competitive bidding, 175 were through single-source procurement and 58 through restricted tendering…”.

The auditor’s analysis indicates that using restricted tendering and sole-sourcing resulted in COCOBOD incurring about 100 percent more cost per kilometre of road compared to using National Competitive Bidding. Perhaps these instances influenced the Ghana Integrity Initiative’s Executive Director to attribute the surge in public sector corruption to frequent use of single-source procurement.

During the erstwhile NDC regime, Waterville was awarded a judgment debt of 40 million euros and GH¢51.2million to Mr. Wayome – an alleged party financier, which the Supreme Court subsequently ruled unlawful. In Justice Jones Dotse’s distinguished opinion on the Mr. Wayome and Waterville Judgment debt scandal, he incisively observed that it appeared the two have “entered into an alliance to create, loot and share the resources of this country as if a brigade had been set up for such an enterprise”.

This succinctly captures the allegations that state actors conveniently patronise their own and down their guard, enabling the plunder of public resources for their private gain. The summed effect of unmitigated corruption is dwindling preference for democracy, as captured in the Afrobarometer report.

Conclusion

I recommend and support calls that Ghana effectively utilises its Beneficial Ownership register – provided for by Act 992 and requiring mandatory public disclosure of BO information in all types of public procurement for scrutiny. Potentially, this can prevent corruption and fraud by disrupting cartel bidders and enablers who circumvent procurement processes.

Additionally, by utilising Beneficial Ownership data, associations between businesses bidding for public contracts and individuals in positions of political influence over procurement choices can be detected and stopped. Also, it is essential to educate and encourage citizens to use the right-to-information law for seeking legitimate information regarding public procurement processes. This can unearth procurement malpractices by revealing hidden links of politically connected businesses.

About the Author

Maxwell Kpebesaan Kuu-ire is the West Africa Policy Analyst with Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based think-tank focused on illicit financial flows, corruption, illicit trade and money laundering.

He can be reached via: [email protected]

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