Ghana’s fourth Republican Constitution has largely failed to achieve the tenets and ideals for which it was promulgated, largely due to the absence of merit-based appointments to ensure a competent workforce.
As if that is not damning enough, there is a weak control environment with no effective code of conduct framework to guide the actions and operations of these public officials.
The combined effect of this and many other defects in the 1992 constitution has prevented the country from achieving the Vision-2020’s objective of becoming a balanced economy of a middle-income country with a standard of living similar to Singapore by 2020.
These were the observations at the Institute of Chartered Accountants Corporate Governance faculty lecture on the theme: “A critical appraisal of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution from an Accountant’s perspective; Contributions for amendment.”
Facilitated by Dr Valentin Mensah, CEO of CBS Consulting and Vice Dean of Corporate Governance Faculty, ICAG, the lecture sought to identify gaps and bottlenecks in the country’s 1992 constitution, which appear to be a drawback to our collective growth and development.
Chronicling the pre and post independent constitutions of Ghana from 1951 to 1992, Dr Mensah said the Constitution, which is an amalgamation of key provisions in all the previous constitutions, has failed to meet its own standard of living provision set out in Article 36(1).
It states: “The State shall take all necessary action to ensure that the national economy is managed in such a manner as to maximise the rate of economic development and to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every person in Ghana and to provide adequate means of livelihood and suitable employment and public assistance to the needy.”
Comparing the results of Ghana’s development to that of Singapore, which in 1965 was at par with Ghana at $500 per capita income, it was obvious Ghana was lagging far behind.
“Singapore’s per capita income has shot from $500 in 1965 to $60,729 in 2020, a high-income country. They also reduced their infant mortality faster than any other society, going down from 35 per 1,000 live births in 1965 to 10.90 in 1985,” he stated.
While Singapore succeeded by implementing three exceptional policies of “Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty (MPH),” Ghana’s economic and political slogans of Vision 2020, and Ghana Beyond Aid have led us in and out of IMF bailouts, he pointed out.
He welcomed the ongoing work of the Constitution Review Committee but was quick to point out what he felt was the absence of accountants in the membership of the members of the committee.
“The committee has only lawyers and one media guru. An accountant should have been part of it. This discussion will encourage others to contribute their quota for this national assignment. Other countries make use of accountants in such national endeavours,” he said.
He added: “From the accountant’s perspective, there are many critical areas of the Constitution that require improvement regarding development planning, accountability, transparency, and financial governance.”
In proffering suggestions for constitutional review, Dr Valentin Mensah said there must be an in-built constitutional framework that will ensure a robust internal control mechanism in the governance architecture.
He said these internal control systems must ensure that “public resources are managed efficiently, government functions are transparent and accountable, and citizens’ rights are protected through compliance with laws and regulations.”
Dr Mensah also called for the strengthening of the relationship between the office of the Auditor General and Parliament by suggesting some amendments.
“The current relationship between Parliament and the Auditor General as defined by the 1992 Constitution, seems limited to the submission of the A-G’s report for Parliament’s debate under Articles 184 and 187(2) of the Constitution; The constitutional working relationship between the A-G and Parliament need to be reviewed for more collaboration and effective oversight by Parliament in line with global trend of A-G as officer of Parliament,” he stated.
Dr Maxwell Amuzu, Dean Corporate Governance Faculty, ICAG, who gave the welcome and closing remarks, said accountants needed to make their voices heard on the constitution review and challenged members to compile all suggestions for amendments to the 1992 Constitution.