LAW ON CAUSING FINANCIAL LOSS MILD -- BRIGHT AKWETEY DECLARES (P.3)

Story: Kofi Yeboah.
An aspirant for the flag-bearer position of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Bright Akwetey, has stated that the law on causing financial loss to the state under the Criminal Code, 1960 is too mild to deter people from corrupt practices.
He has, therefore, asked the Attorney-General to use the Public Property Protection Decree, 1977, which, in his view, was more biting than the Criminal Code, to prosecute people who indulge in corruption.
“We should make it such that it is not profitable, attractive or interesting for anybody to indulge in these crimes and this is the appropriate law to use,” Mr Akwetey told the Daily Graphic on Wednesday.
“Corruption is too rampant and pervasive in the country and something must be done about it. There is need for commitment to fight corruption without fear or favour, affection or ill will. If we don’t stop or minimise corruption in this country, you can have economic recovery programmes, structural adjustment programmes, poverty alleviation programmes, whatever programme and best social policy, but you will fail because of corruption,” he added.
Since the law on causing financial loss to the state was applied against Messrs Kwame Peprah, Victor Selormey and Dan Abodakpi, all former Ministers of State in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, a few years ago, there has been intense debate on whether to repeal or keep the law in the statute books.
Proponents of the repeal of the law argue that it is too punitive and might discourage decent individuals from holding public office, while those who want the law to stay contend that it is a useful weapon to fight corruption.
Mr Akwetey, who is a lawyer and a campaigner against corruption, belongs to the latter school of thought and thinks that the law on causing financial loss to the state under the Criminal Code is too mild to fight corruption.
“We should make it such that people should fear to embezzle public funds. I’m determined, as one of my objectives, to protect the national purse for the development of this country. And to protect the national purse, this is the appropriate law to use to make it uninteresting for anybody to just go in and dissipate public funds,” he pointed out.
Mr Akwetey said Section 179 (a) and (c) of the Criminal Code, which deal with causing loss or damage to property, and using public office for profit respectively, did not go far enough in making provision for how the state should recover the loss incurred.
However, he said, the Public Projection Decree made provision, after judgement and execution processes, to recover the loss incurred by the state.
Section 6 (1) of the decree provides that “where the court convicts any person of an offence under this Decree, the court shall make such orders as may be necessary for recovering the public property concerned, or for making good any loss of or damage to the public property concerned and for this purpose the court may, upon such terms as it thinks fit, (a) order the seizure and forfeiture to the Republic of any asset of the convicted person; (b) where the court is satisfied that any other person holds any asset on behalf of the convicted person, order the seizure and forfeiture to the Republic of that asset...”
According to Mr Akwetey, the Criminal Code fell short of making such provisions “so I’m saying that this (Decree) should be used because it allows the court to make an order for the seizure of confiscation of any of your assets to recover the loss caused to the state”.
He said if the late Victor Selormey, for instance, had transferred $1.2 million abroad and the state had lost it, his house and property in Ghana could be confiscated under the decree and sold to recover that amount.
”That is the way to deter people from stealing government’s money,” he remarked.
Section 1(1) of the Decree provides that, “Any person who intentionally dissipates public funds shall be guilty of an office and liable on conviction to imprisonment not exceeding 10 years without the option of a fine.”
That law further provides that any person who misapplies public funds, causing loss to the state as a result, is liable to a conviction not exceeding five years or to a fine.
“But if you intentionally dissipate public funds like Selormey and Abodakpi, it is without the option of a fine,” Mr Akwetey pointed out.
He said recovering the loss incurred to the state would mitigate the sentence imposed on the convict, otherwise one could serve 30 years in prison, but that would be of no use to the state.
Responding to a suggestion that the decree might be used for political vendetta as some people suspect the law on causing financial loss to the state was being used for, he said “don’t steal public property and you are free”.
He stressed the need to strengthen state institutions set up to fight corruption, such as the Ghana Police Service and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
On the CPP national delegates congress slated for tomorrow, Mr Akwetey asked the delegates to give him the mandate to enable the party to regain political power and change the fortunes of the country.
He said at the moment, the priority national concerns that needed to be addressed were corruption, crime and national security, promising that he would deliver the nation from those challenges when given the nod.
Mr Akwetey expressed optimism that come next Monday, his name and picture would be splashed on the front pages of newspapers as the CPP flag bearer for the 2008 elections.