Revelations of corruption by Auditor-General is due to state’s ‘weak capacity’ – Dr Asah-Asante

A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, says the recent revelations of corruption by the Auditor-General is due to the state’s ‘weak capacity’.

According to him, the failure of the state to develop effective ways of dealing with corruption is the cause of the latest corrupt discoveries.

Sharing his thoughts on the newspaper review segment of JoyNews‘ AM Show, on Wednesday, he told host, Benjamin Akakpo that over the years, Ghana has only been paying lip-service to the fight against corruption without putting actual measures in place.

This he noted is the reason for the latest Auditor General’s Report, involving the payments of monies to ghost workers and other financial irregularities.

“It’s nothing but weak capacity of the state, that’s all. When we talk about capacity of the state, we are looking at how the state is able to use its resources to manage things efficiently for a better life for it’s people. Is that what we’re seeing? No. It means somebody is not doing his wok”, he lamented.

The lecturer continued, “How can you pay a ghost so to speak? And it’s consistent. We’ve seen ghost names all the time. [And despite] efforts by the state to remove them, in no time, they come back.

Why can’t we find lasting solutions to this? Is it the case that we want to deal with this case head on? I’m not sure. Because if we want to address it, we’ll find better ways of addressing it than these adhoc and then lip service we pay to some of these things”.

Dr Asah-Asante’s comments were in reaction to the latest Auditor-General’s report which detailed some financial malfeasances involving state institutions and functionaries.

One of such revelations was the case of judges who had bought vehicles below the actual cost of the said vehicles.

Touching on that development, Dr Asah-Asante said he does not blame the judges involved.

According to him, the practice whereby government auctions uncleared vehicles at the port, for cheaper prices is the main issue which must be dealt with.

Meanwhile, scores of Ghanaians have taken to their social media handles to express their disgust about the viral Auditor-General’s report.

In venting their grievances, some expressed their lack of hope in Ghana becoming better; adding that they would not mind leaving the country for greener pastures.