The Committee for Joint Action has called for the establishment of a financial tribunal to tackle government corruption, which is envisioned in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.

Despite the written promise of the tribunal, the CJA says no serious effort has ever been made to establish the court.

“The absence of the tribunal reduces the work of the Public Accounts Committee of parliament to a mere circus,” Kwesi Pratt, a member of the Committee for Joint Action and managing editor of Insight newspaper, said at a press conference in Accra on Thursday morning. “Government cannot just adopt the lazy option of passing on every and any cost to the general public and hope to alleviate the suffering of the poor.”

The CJA’s call for the creation of the tribunal comes as the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) scandal continues to unfold. Earlier this week, two men were charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state, the misapplication of public funds, and aiding and abetting crime. 

“The refusal of relevant institutions to set up this tribunal, from an NDC government through the NPP administration to another NDC government speaks volumes about official commitment toward the fight against corruption,” Pratt says. “This year, the CJA will not compromise its stance on this issue and we urge all the political parties and civil society organizations to join us in mounting pressure for the establishment of the financial tribunal.”

Another option for battling corruption was presented by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) founder Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom at a rally in Cape Coast earlier in January. Dr. Nduom called for an amendment to the 1992 Constitution that prevents the President from executing absolute power.

“We must change the system so that whoever comes to power, whether NPP or NDC or CPP or PPP or whatever, that person’s power can be held in check by Parliament or by other people,” GhanaWeb reports he said.