The National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration may appear to be doing better in terms of open, competitive sourcing of contracts than under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) era.
That is what the Minister of Roads, Mr Governs Agbodja, claimed on the floor of Parliament when he appeared to refute allegations of widespread sole sourcing of contracts presently.
Since Parliament is a platform of public record, there may be justification for his comments that under the NPP, nearly all public contracts were awarded based on sole sourcing.
However, his statement that only a small fraction of contracts are awarded these days through sole sourcing is nothing more than an understatement, a spin to win populist support, as indeed, in his own words, as much as 44 per cent of contracts are awarded through sole sourcing.
Indeed, and in fact, in all mathematical considerations, almost half of any quantity or volume is much and can never be described as ONLY.
He downplays the magnitude of the lack of willingness to go through any rigorous process in awarding contracts through open competitive tender for whatever reason.
Coupled with the fact that he did not give a precise percentage of the volume of contracts awarded through sole sourcing under the NPP administration that he indicts, nor the percentage of contracts awarded through restricted tender presently, it betrays a lack of transparency and accountability in politics where principles seem to shift with power dynamics.
The Majority Members of Parliament might have shared his perspective, but framing almost half of the contracts as only, meaning he did not consider that as anything worrisome, means he does not feel a sense of remorse, but pride when the figure represents more than a significant proportion.
Almost half of anything is significant and can never be described in any way as little or of no effect.
It could only mean that he wants to do more sole sourcing.
Politicians
Politicians are a wonderful breed, and when they undo one another, they turn round to accuse the public of describing them as the same, with the concomitant accusations that such public convictions drive away people of integrity and conscience from politics.
But in our part of the world, when you are not a politician, you are not counted among those who are worthy of recognition, and we see these daily at funerals and who gets appointed into the public services.
You need to know a politician before certain basic rights can be enjoyed.
What they decried yesterday, they would embellish and applaud today, because they were not in government yesterday but are in charge today.
But they need to be reminded of the statement from the historian that “What I was you are, what I am you shall be”.
Principles must be principles, not because of whose ox is to be gored but because it is in our collective interest, if we have conscience, to be consistent in the application of principles and ethical standards.
A government established on the principle of ensuring value for money, and gone further to establish a Value for Money office, should not present 44 per cent sole sourcing as something to applaud but something to loathe.
The government must seek to offer better explanations than to be dismissive, that whilst they decried what happened in the previous administration and promised to erase sole sourcing, it has been realised that they cannot do away with the practice and hence the high number, even if it has been brought to manageable levels.
No one should be deluded into assuming that 44 per cent of any quantity is only.
If the numbers in this Parliament were like the Ninth Parliament, the Minister of Roads would not have had the guts, but now that the numbers are available, they can choose to act with pride and feel glorious.
When President Kufuor tickled his predecessor for providing jobs for the boys with the unwieldy size of government, he could not trim the numbers.
He openly apologised to the people and said: ‘na mennim’, I did not know, and Ghanaians forgave him for his sincerity, even if they disagreed with him.
Some philosopher has emphasised that the greatest compliment you can pay to a friend is to be candid with him.
We thus need to remind ourselves and one another that what is bad must be bad for all within a given society, and does not matter who did or is doing it.
There are a number of programmes pursued by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government that attracted the ire of the leadership of the present government, who assured our people that they would not repeat those heinous acts.
Two of them readily come to attention: the double-track system in senior high schools (SHSs) and the decision to harvest applications for future entry into the security services based on the large volumes of applications and the low intakes.
The double track was condemned and had positive support from some people, but when, under the present administration, there was the opportunity to admit a single track, that was ignored, and so we have new entrants under the double track.
Again, because of the oversubscription of applicants to the security services, the government has resolved to hunt for further applicants from those who applied this year to fill future vacancies. What has changed?
The difference is political leadership; instead of Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum at the Ministry of Education, we now have Haruna Iddrisu, and instead of Henry Quartey, we have Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka at the Ministry of the Interior.
The presidency has also changed. But all other things remain the same.
Under Article 162(5) of the 1992 Constitution, we in the media are enjoined to hold the government accountable to the people, but if you could not do so yesterday but do so today, you would be accused of bias or anti-this or pro that, seeking to usurp or impeach our freedom and independence.
Such thinking is not only warped because it happened yesterday, but those defending it today condemned it.
So why do they seem to implement what they saw as dysfunctional?
It is like any animal which vomits and decides to eat back the vomit.
Those who care about such animals must stop them from such acts.
We likewise must stand up and remind our leaders about the gaps between what they did yesterday and promised to do today, but have ignored what they promised to do and gone back to implement what they decried and condemned yesterday.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh