THE NAKEDNESS OF CORRUPTION

By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath

A SAMPLE CHAIN OF CORRUPTION

Torgbui Nyansah has just retired from the public service.  For over 30 years he had dedicated his productive life to the service of his country. In his own estimation, he was   honest and patriotic as sincerely as one could be. He could be characterised as a man of integrity. He once resisted a temptation and refused to sign a document that could have made him very rich for life. He declined because he sensed some fishy deal. To his amazement, instead of being appreciated for that professional ethical exhibition, he was rather penalised and suffered ill-treatment. “Go and chop your integrity,” he was scorned. That was how Torgbui Nyansah was dumped into the dustbin of poverty in terms of material fortune.  

 In 1990, Torgbui Nyansah was about five years in the service when he was posted on secondment. The institution he worked for was responsible for public education and information dissemination in the country. The organisation he was assigned was in charge of national heritage.  As a holder of diploma in journalism at the time, he was still a junior officer. However, he was posted to serve as Public Relations Officer (PRO) in his new agency. Normally, only senior officers held that post. Yet his director told him he possessed what it took to perform public relations functions.

 His director said to him: “Torgbui Nyansah, I have made my own assessment of you, a sort of  ‘Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats analysis (SWOT),’ and realised that you have an affinity for writing. You are a good writer,” he stressed. As evidence, the director cited an occasion when he once heard a news commentary being read on national   radio and television networks, which was written by Torgbui Nyansah. Apparently, the director was amazed because Nyansah was still student at the time. That particular news commentary the director referred to, was about the celebration of a United Nations (UN) declared international day of the theatre. The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was the only broadcast organisation at the time; so for one’s script to be accepted and read on Radio Ghana was a big deal. Indeed, Torgbui Nyansah did not disappoint his director. He took up the challenge as a junior officer and discharged the functions of a senior officer creditably. For over six years that he served in that capacity, his performance was adjudged to be outstanding in the true sense of the word.

First Corruption Shock

One day, the director of administration of his workplace of secondment presented Torgbui Nyansah with some budget estimate to endorse. Upon careful scrutiny of the document, it turned out to be a list of building materials including lumbers, plywoods, wa-wa boards, roofing sheets, mosquito nets, nails, gallons of paint and others. These items were to be purchased by the estate officers for the rehabilitation of the supposedly Public Relations Officer’s bungalow. 

However, at that time the PRO was not living in a bungalow at all. Not even in a two-bedroom apartment. Rather, he was squatting with his family in some dilapidated single room somewhere known as civil servants transit quarters in Accra. Thus, he was shocked to have seen this estimated building materials valued several thousands of Cedis that could have been used to construct a new house. “Why should I sing this document?” he asked himself. In a flash, a voice from within told him not to append his signature. Instantly, Torgbui Nyansah sprang up from his seat as if stung by a wasp. From his tiny office, he rushed out straight to the administration director’s office. “Please sir” he said, stretching his hand with the document toward him. “What’s this that you wanted me to sign?”

The manner in which the question was posed betrayed some anger in his throat. “Didn’t you request that the Commission should do some renovation work in your house?” the director retorted. “Yes” he responded. “But I only asked for mosquito nets to be fixed on my windows,” he responded. He explained, “Moreover, where I am staying at the moment is not a bungalow at all.” Then he told the director that he was sorry but he could not sign the document. Then he dashed out of the director’s office. The director was shocked by the defiant attitude of the PRO. “Why did he decline to endorse the estimate,” he seemed to have queried himself.

 Then it was the director’s turn to surprise the PRO. He followed up and also entered the PRO’s office with fury. He expressed shock that a junior officer had the gut to refuse to comply with an “order” from his superior officer. Initially, the director resorted to some sorts of tricks to persuade the junior officer to rescind his decision not to sign the said document. He attempted using some words of inducement. He further gave assurances that if the document was signed the officer would not be denied of his part of the booty. Everything possible was done and yet the PRO did not budge. Rather, he tried to reason out with the director. “Sir,” he called out: “You see, since I am currently not living in a bungalow, what would I tell the auditors if one day, they come to verify or inspect the rehabilitation work done at my nonexistent bungalow?” Without any hesitation the director retorted: “You leave that to me;” adding, “I would handle the auditors whenever they come to perform their duties.”

Still Torgbui Nyansah was not convinced. Upon consultation with his inner self or conscience, he insisted that he would not sign the document. When the finance director realised the PRO was not ready to compromise on his principles, his persuasions suddenly turned into threats. “Because you have refused to sign this estimate we shall see who is who in this Commission,” he sad furiously. He then snatched the documents from his hands and stormed out of the PRO’s office. From that day, the PRO was ignored, snubbed and sidelined in all money matters. He was never allowed to touch anything dealing with financial issues such as budgeting or procurements and so on. It was this particular experience that opened the author’s third eye. Since then he started seeing the nudity or nakedness of corruption in the public/civil service in Ghana.

The author is a Ghanaian bilingual journalist, poet & blogger abissath@gmail.com