Public office and code of conduct
Politicians and public office holders across the world have increasingly come under attack for perceived or real corruption or misconduct.
Advertisement
This article focuses on the need for an effective ethical governance regime for Members of Ghana’s Parliament although it has relevance for the members of the Cabinet, ministers of state, members of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDA’s), political appointees and all other public office holders.
In various countries, the problem of corruption or misconduct by politicians and other public office holders is being dealt with through either legislation or institutional frameworks or a combination of both.
For example, British Prime Minister John Major instituted the Committee for Standards in Public Life in October 1994 as a direct response to public furore following a newspaper allegation that two Conservative Party Members of Parliament had been paid bribe to table questions on behalf of a businessman. The terms of reference of this independent committee were:
“to examine the current concerns about standards of conduct of all public office, including arrangements relating to financial and commercial activities, and make recommendations as to any changes to present arrangements which might be required to ensure the highest standards of propriety in public office.”
What is disturbing, however, about the approach in Ghana is the knee-jerk and inappropriate manner in which the issue of code of conduct is being dealt with - from the Cabinet, parliament, down to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDA’s).
In July last year, President John Dramani Mahama preferred to launch a manual of code of ethics for ministers of state and government appointees first before seeking a legislation to back it up. There is no evidence too that the code received enough independent consultation. The rush in which the code was drafted has also compromised its quality – all because of the eagerness to respond to public criticism of politicians.
At the MMDA level, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development’s decision to ask the Attorney General’s Department to draft a code of conduct for MMDA’s and as a response to one incident only in Kumasi cannot certainly be considered an appropriate way of addressing the issue even at the local level.
Other Trending Stories
As the institution which makes laws for the country, Parliament has taken the lead, albeit unintentionally, by constituting an ad hoc committee in July last year to draft a code of conduct for Members of Parliament (MP’s) for adoption.
An ethical governance regime such as a code of conduct must focus on changing behaviour of members of the institution for which it is intended, and the regime must emerge from the specific circumstances of the institution. Considering the current levels of criticism of politicians and political institutions such as the Parliament, however, it would be prudent to open the debate to the public and independent bodies as part of its development and consultation processes. Drawing from examples of good practice elsewhere and from international standards too would enhance both the process and the final product.
The provisions of Chapter 24 of the 1992 Ghana Constitution and the code of conduct for public officers launched by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) may be good reference points only for developing a comprehensive code of each public institution. What is required is a code which would reflect the specific circumstances of each public institution such as Parliament.
Parliament has drafted a bill which seeks to provide a coherent and harmonised anti-corruption legislation while the government intends to use the bill to give legal backing to its Code of Conduct for all government appointees. However, as the bill is, to all intents and purposes, an anti-corruption legislation, the title - Conduct of Public Officers’ Bill – is inappropriate. Corruption is but one aspect of conduct and it should be treated as such.
Parliament must be aware that there has now been a marked shift away from the traditional self-regulation approach which is favoured by Parliament. Self-regulation by lawmakers would raise further suspicion and doubt about independence, fairness, openness and accountability.
The approach of involving the public and other independent bodies was taken in Britain in 1994 when the Committee for Standards in Public Life was established. It recommended among others the creation of the position of an independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to handle investigation of complaints about the breach of MP’s code of conduct.
Ghana’s Parliament can avoid being pilloried by the public and the press if it takes the issue of code of conduct for MP’s more as an opportunity to engage the public about their conduct. Ghana Parliament has been in existence for over 20 years and a code of conduct for it is long overdue.
The author is an ethical governance expert.