The public purse has never been so ransacked and with such impunity. On weekly or even daily basis, stories about persons entrusted with managing state resources are mentioned for either being negligent or even involved in open thievery of the public purse mostly in connivance with persons in the private sector.
The anomaly has become so rampant it is fast losing its significance; unfortunately some think it is a norm to devise a means of engaging in such financial malfeasances because after all suspects are hardly prosecuted.
The expression, soul sourcing, is now trending when procurement in state institutions are concerned; that explains its preference by government appointees. As a source of quick money, it is being protected with all manner of arguments, most of them unsound and unconvincing.
The past few weeks have unearthed more of such aberrations and we wonder why our consciences are not being pricked so we can appreciate the mess we are putting our country.
Taxes have reached rooftop levels because the public kitty has bled beyond acceptable dimensions, a situation which has compelled the government with no alternative to resort to these unacceptable options. Interestingly, it is the same government whose singular role in the rape of the purse has led us to the quandary we find ourselves in.
We have observed middlemen being engaged to play roles in the acquisition of multiple digit loans: the disbursement of these loans forms another chapter in the looting of public funds in recent times.
An unprecedented volume of loans have been contracted under the current political dispensation yet very little or insignificant infrastructural developments have come out of these. Where such developments have taken place their costs are inflated beyond comprehension, nowhere near the reality.
We have observed unwillingness by the government through its chief legal officer to retrieve monies fraudulently looted from the public purse. The disregard for the implication of such open thievery appears to have been lost to some Ghanaians especially those involved in it.
The country is at crossroads. We either allow these anomalous situations to continue or we join hands as a nation with a common destiny to fight the cankerworm.
Our president has had one opportunity too many to prove to his compatriots that he is ready to combat head-on the corruption scourge facing the country. Having demanded sufficient proofs of corruption so he can take appropriate action, we are amazed that the many instances which have reared their heads have been avoided by him. Where the judiciary has tried some of these cases and ordered retrieval of the stolen funds, deliberate foot-dragging has been employed to make nonsense of the court judgment.
It is in the light of these anomalous developments and against the backdrop of the yeoman efforts of Martin Amidu that we doff our hats for the gentleman. The man needs the support of all well-meaning Ghanaians to protect the public purse.
The public kitty cannot get adequate protection when the already created, looted and shared monies are not retrieved from those who partook in the consumption of the spoils.
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