AN industrialist, Torgbe Gobah Tengey, has supported the proposal that the state should fund political parties to reduce their reliance on donations from individuals, corporate bodies and state institutions.
He said the dependence of parties on big donations for their political campaigns was a root cause of corruption and embezzlement in the country today.
“It is, therefore, time for the government to impose a one per cent tax on all exports and imports to raise funds for political parties and such funds should be kept in an escrow account,” he stated.
It will be recalled that state funding of political parties had been strongly proposed as a way forward for the deepening of democracy in the country.
The recommendations were arrived at as a result of a nationwide broad consultation the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Winner-Takes-All Advisory Committee (IEA-WTA) had with a cross-section of Ghanaians on the way forward for the deepening of democracy in the country.
Reduce burden on parties
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Torgbe Tengey said “the funds, which would reduce the burden on parties during political campaigns, should be distributed to them based on their strength in Parliament.”
“However, political parties with no representatives in Parliament must also be supported,” he added.
Rampant embezzlement
According to Torgbe Tengey, political parties had over the years played enormous roles in strengthening the country’s fledgling democracy and must, therefore, be supported.
He stated that it was the lack of financial support for parties that compelled almost all political parties to solicit funds from individuals, public institutions and businessmen, a situation he said “puts business people and heads of state bodies to engage in rampant embezzlement of state resources.”
“We must acknowledge that those who doll out funds to political parties do so in order to win favours and win juicy contracts when a political party comes to power. They resort to any means to reap their investments at the expense of the state,” Torgbe Tengey said.
Depleting coffers
Torgbe Tengey added that donors often voted huge money and connived with political parties in power to steal state resources, depleting the coffers of public institutions.
“All these skewed acts are perpetrated in the name of setting aside resources to fund their favourite political parties to come to power for them to retain their positions in public outfits,” he said.
To nip the practice in the bud, he called on Parliament to immediately pass a law to guide the establishment of funds for political parties, saying that “either Parliament or the Electoral Commission must be mandated to distribute such funds to the political parties.”
“As a nation, it is only when we are able to create legal funds for our political parties that we can hope to stem the tide of corruption and embezzlement of state resources,” Torgbe Tengey said.
Crack the whip
Torgbe Tengey was visibly worried over the rate at which corruption and embezzlement among state institutions were dominating media headlines.
He partly blamed the canker on the failure of the government to “crack the whip” against those involved in the alleged acts.
“Today, many heads of state institutions are under enormous pressure to connive with political parties to greedily rip off the state institutions of almost all resources in their coffers. Because of corruption, politics has become almost a booty sharing affair.
“And if we are to seriously tackle the phenomenon, it is time the government demonstrated practical commitment to deal with those reported to have been involved in corrupt practices,” he added.
