Strengthen laws on income, expenditure of political parties

Five members of the Electoral Commission (EC) including its Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, have called for the strengthening of the laws on verifying the income and expenditure of political parties to empower the EC and other anti-corruption bodies to play their roles effectively.
Other members, Nana Ama Eyiaba, Mr Emmanuel Aggrey-Fynn, Mr Adanze Kanga and Mr Safo Kantanka were of the view that such enhanced laws with prescribed penalties would offer the bodies the power to delve into the income and expenditure of the political parties.
That, they said, would prevent the elections from being sold to the highest bidder, as well as prevent “money bags and drug barons” from taking over the nation’s democratic process.
They made the call in an interaction with the members of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition in Accra on Wednesday.
Dr Afari-Gyan who defined electoral corruption to include anything that would negatively affect the outcome of the electoral process and alter the will of the people, also said there were laws that specifically frowned on foreigners contributing to political parties but everyone was aware that these were being openly abused by the political parties.
He said although these laws were being flouted with impunity by political parties in Ghana, very little could be done to halt them and also prosecute such recalcitrant political parties and their executive because the laws were not deterrent enough.
Dr Afari-Gyan called for a legal framework that would require full disclosure of the donor and the receiver as well as stating what was donated.
This, he said, coupled with Freedom of Information Law would allow the media and other investigative bodies unimpeded access to all information regarding such donations and reveal the giver, receiver and amounts involved.
Dr Afari-Gyan said such laws would end the canker of underdeclaration of income and expenditure, refusal to disclose sources of funding for political parties and also secure the integrity of the electoral process.
He said another move that would minimise such corrupt practices was the introduction of the enhanced public support for political parties, because under such dispensation, political parties would be subjected to strict and proper accounting processes.
Mr Kanga, who is also the Deputy Chairmen of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, said although the parties usually presented their audited income and expenditure accounts to the EC, very little was done by the EC about the statements.
He said that was so because at certain times it was evident that certain amounts, especially the incomes and expenditure disclosed by political parties in their statements had been reduced drastically and the commission was constrained because such accounts had been prepared by qualified chartered accountants and all figures justified.
He said, for instance, if a political party declared an amount as what it got from donations, the EC or the investigative body would not be able to verify that from the recipients of the amount as well as check from the party’s accounting books and its bankers because there was no law backing such moves.
Mr Aggrey-Fynn alleged that businessmen and contractors had always been paying huge sums of money to some political parties with the view that if any of them won the elections, they would be considered when it came to awarding contracts or giving other offers.
“People claim that millions of dollars come into the country during election periods. Some even allege that drug money had been used”, he alleged and stated that if the state security agencies were up to their task they would be able track the sources of such funds and prosecute the offenders.
He added that the issue of corruption in the electoral process could also be attributed to the fact that people were able to offer huge sums of money in sacks to political parties and these were always not accounted for because such monies could not traced.
Mr Aggrey-Fynn noted that another reason for people failing to disclose their names and amount involved was the fear that if the other parties won elections they might come after them for donating to their opponents.
Nana Ama Eyiaba wondered how monies and other items donated to traditional authorities could be categorised when political party leaders were in such localities to campaign or had been invited to participate in festivals.
She said that was a dicey situation because tradition demanded that people offer traditional leaders a token for libation and other things, but “should we have a ceiling on how much should be donated and also should the traditional authorities and the parties involved disclose such amounts?”
Mr Kantanka noted that the political parties have had a field’s day in exploiting the loopholes in the accounting procedure prescribed by the laws to underdeclare their incomes and expenditure.
He said to secure the electoral process the loopholes in the accounting process must be blocked.
The Chairman of the Coalition, Reverend Dr Fred Deegbe, said Ghanaians should not only be concerned about voting on election days alone but also interested in all the processes involved in the electoral system.
He said if the increasing infiltration of huge sums of money into the campaigns of the elections was not checked, political positions would be for the highest bidders and drug barons.
Dr Deegbe together with Mr Bright Blewu, General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association, and a member of the coalition called for the passage of Freedom of Information Law.