Thanks to the Honourable Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a deal to part-sell off four Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) six hotel properties to the Rock City Limited, a company owned by the Member of Parliament for Abetifi and the current Minister of Agriculture, has become public. In all, the six hotels in question are the Labadi Beach Hotel, the La Palm Resort Beach Hotel, the Elmina Beach Resort, the Ridge Royal Hotel, the Busua Beach Hotel and the Trust Lodge Hotel.
The honourable North Tongu Member of Parliament, who is creditably establishing himself as an anti corruption crusader, has proceeded to seek the intervention of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice of Ghana (CHRAG) against the proposed purchase. From the time of his disclosure, the intended disposal of the SSNIT properties has generated considerable public concern, and for very patriotic reasons. Much of it has focused on the economic prudence of the deal, as well as the imprudent management practices of pensioners’ money by the SSNIT Board of Directors.
Unfortunately, the unethical aspect of the deal, involving a sitting Member of Parliament, also a current Minister of State, appears to be lost in the voracious public discourse, a dimension of great concern to The Catholic Standard. It is sad to observe that increasingly Ghanaian public officials and officers are normalizing sins that hitherto were seen as immodest and unethical. Let no one deceive him/herself that the SNNIT hotel deal with the Rock City Limited is not a classic case of conflict of interest. Above all, it is also a fragrant display of political cronyism. By no means can it escape the perception of political influence, given the partisan composition of the SSNIT Board that sang hallelujah to the purchase.
Indeed, the manner of the purchase, as has come to be known, demonstrates a classic failure of test of conflict-of-interest appearance: The essence of public service, a role the beneficial owner of the Rock City Limited company, finds himself in as both a Minister of State and a Member of Parliament, requires that he serves public interest, at all times. His position as a public officer, in this case an elected and appointed public official, imposes on him the duty of maintaining public confidence in the integrity of public service and good governance. Appearance of a conflict of interest is one primary means by which a public official upholds and maintains public confidence. In other words, even though the sale of the SSNIT hotel properties is available to every Ghanaian, it is not every Ghanaian who can buy them; thus he in particular (or his company), cannot purchase them.
Besides, per the dictates of the principles of conflict of interest, a public official is obligated to recuse him/herself from any conduct that occasions conflict between one’s interest and that of the public. Indeed, where conflict of interest, real, apparent or even potential arises, such conflict is to be resolved in favour of the public interest. Applied to the SSNIT hotel properties purchase, here is a government official, an appointee of the government, who or whose company seeks to buy state assets at arm’s length, even as he continues to be a beneficial owner, real, apparent or potential.
There is no escaping the fact of conflict-of-interest in the SSNIT purchase. Clearly, the deal involves financial transaction or transfer of economic benefits in the form of majority shareholding, partnership or proprietorship to a serving member of government or his company. In the considered opinion of this Paper, even a special purpose vehicle in the form of a blind trust may not be sufficient to erase the prohibition of a conflict-of-interest, given the arm’s length beneficiary, who continues to remain a public official. The Minister-Member of Parliament is reminded that public interest is, and should be, foremost at the very bottom of his public service.
The SSNIT hotel deal is eerie! It is contrary to the spirit, the plain text and purpose of conflict-of-interest principle. This normalization of, otherwise, wrongdoing involving State officials, variously known as state capture, is one more example of a country that is openly sleepwalking into constitutional dictatorship. It is said in law that justice must not be done but also must see to be done. Similarly, in respect of corruption, conflict of interest must not only be avoided but also the appearance of conflict of interest.
A sensitive government is not to please itself in the face of popular opposition. The Government is accordingly encouraged to discourage this unhealthy phenomenon of backdoor graft through a timely, surgical, presidential intervention.
