Before the dust has settled on Ghana’s latest brand label as “The Republic of Corruption”, the last bastion of seeming incorruptibility has been tagged as corrupt.

The Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana, which has hitherto been seen as the last bastion of inscrutability in our country’s governance institutions, has been accused of being as rotten and smelly as all the others.

That our august House of Honourables is now said to be dishonorable is bad enough. When the accusation is made by one of the two most experienced and longest serving Members of Parliament, then we have a crisis of gargantuan proportions on our hands.

Alban Sumama Bagbin belongs to the pioneer class of the Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana. He has been in the House since 1993, holding every 'Big post' bar one; that of Speaker.  So if Alban surfaces from the depth of the deepest waters to do his “Mea Maxima Culpa” act of penitence in this Lenten season, who are we to doubt his confession that our Honourables are also shrouded in  ‘wiase y3 sum’                

Being one of the suspended animated ‘three wise men’, the Hon Bagbin was very gingerly in dipping his toe into the hot waters of Parliamentary corruption. His thesis was that in a country where the scent of sleaze had penetrated the nostrils of every governance institution and the body politic itself, it will be naïve to think that our Honourables were the only saints whose noses were blocked to the stinking stench.

The response from his colleagues was akin to that of the now fashionable again mini skirt; revealing but still concealing the hard core truths. Several decibels of righteous indignation only compounded the confusion. Guilty with explanation was the sheepish plea, albeit flavoured with a clenched teeth venomous threat to string, skew and burn Alban like an overnight “kyikyinga” (khebab) that is being re-roasted to eliminate the smell of incipient decay.            

Our Honourables conceded that “Yes, we do receive extra-curricular (“under the table) payments, but whether this was bribe or not depended more on the fatness of the envelope than a deliberate and conscious act of extortion to do the bidding of the payer; be they civil society organizations, Genetically Modified lobbyists or public organizations seeking increases in user charges for their uncounted for Internally Generated Funds.

The practice of fully paid and very generous weekends to get into the innards of prospective bills and other matters relating to the interests of the sponsors may not be as old as Adam, but it has been a feature of Ghana’s Parliamentary practice throughout the 21 years of the entire 4th Republic.

So has been the periodic ‘consultation’ between the Executive and the Leadership of the House on the eve of introduction and/or passage of important legislation or the unblocking of the obstacles to the delivery of the Budget or the State of the Nation addresses.    

Not a single Parliamentarian who has spoken on the matter has denied categorically that they have not received payments beyond their approved salaries, expenses and other emoluments covered by the laws of Ghana. And it is the issue of lawful or legal payments that lie at the heart of the racing debate on whether our Honourables are like every Ghanaian living everywhere.

Our constitution gives powers to Parliament to take charge of its own affairs. Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Parliament may, by standing orders, regulate its own procedure. (110 (i).

Our constitution goes on further to suggest how anyone given powers to run their own show must behave, namely: “where the person or authority is not a judge or other judicial officer, there shall be published by constitutional instrument or statutory instrument, regulations that are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution or that other law to govern the exercise of the discretionary power” (296(c)).

Problem is that so far, our Parliament has not seen it fit, nor indeed urgent.  to make rules of engagement when it comes to making ‘under the table’ payments. Not just that; our Parliament has not considered, let alone passed a Code of Conduct’ to regulate the affairs of members to ensure that our public interest will always be put ahead of their private greed.

As with their colleagues in the Executive and other Article 71 office holders, even the mandatory obligation to declare assets at the beginning and end of their tenure of office has been ignored with impunity and utter contempt.    

Let us contrast our obfuscated situation with the practice of those who we borrowed from. In those dispensations, there is an acceptance that interest groups and persons will seek to carry favour with lawmakers in the pursuit of their private interests. However, the cardinal rule is that these ends must never so compromise the honour of the People’s representatives so badly that they jettison the Public Interest. 

Strict Codes of Conduct, Transparent and verifiable rules for lobbying, declaration, and more importantly, publication of the business and private interests of elected and appointed public officials are the instruments for ensuring decency, honesty, and integrity of officials.

The British Parliament has two very commendable obligations it places on its members which are worthy of emulation by us. These are; 1) The Register of Members Interests; and, 2) A Code of Conduct.

The Register of Members Interests provides information on any financial or non-financial benefit received by a MP or Member of the Lords which might reasonably be thought by others to influence their actions, speeches or votes in Parliament or influence their actions taken in their capacity as a Member.

The Code of Conduct gives a clear and unambiguous definition of bribe which is refreshingly honest, namely: “The acceptance by a Member of a bribe to influence his or her conduct as a Member, including any fee, compensation or reward in connection with the promotion of, or opposition to, any Bill, Motion, or other matter submitted, or intended to be submitted to the House, or to any Committee of the House, is contrary to the law of Parliament.”

So there we have it. Whether it is ghs 200 for petrol money, food and refreshment for the accompanying party, ‘samples of the products of the interest groups or whatever, the sponsoring of weekend workshops of our Parliamentarians will be tantamount to taking bribes f they were members f the mother of all Parliaments.

Ghana is suffering from an acute lack of transparency in the conduct of public affairs. There is a dearth of clear rules of engagement and regulations to make real the many laws which pretend and portend honesty and integrity in the conduct of those who we give power to act in our name and on our behalf.

The Speaker of Parliament has belatedly announced that he has found money to develop a Code of Conduct for our Parliament. Please, I beg, this is a ruse to douse the fires that Alban Bagbin has lit, and nothing more. As we say,” If you want to see what death looks like, watch someone in a deep sleep.”

President John Mahama introduced a Code of Conduct for Ministers with great fanfare and aplomb nearly year ago. This ‘noble’ act has joined the queue of ‘the Right to Information bill’ and other worthy initiatives waiting for Dr Kumbuor and Osei Kyei-Mensah to find time to lay them before august Honourables for their 1st reading. And yet we found time to rush the GM bill.

No matter how it is rationalised or justified, the taking or receiving of any payments by elected public officials outside of anything other than transparently clear and public rules of engagement is BRIBE, BRIBE & BRIBE.

We have heard a lot to try to justify what has been going on all these years. If our Parliament believes there are merits and extenuating circumstances that justify taking payments from private interests. Let them set these out in the Code of Conduct that Speaker Adjaho has suddenly found money to develop.

More importantly, let’s see our Parliament direct its fury and feigned indignation and into the passage this year of the three bills that will shine the brightest of lights on the ‘wiase y3 sum” affairs of public officials, namely: 1) The Code of Conduct for Ministers; The Code of Conduct for Parliament; and, 3) the Right to Information Bill.