[ 2016-11-10 ]

Emile Short - Former Commissioner of CHRAJ

Vote buying is corruption - Emile Short
A former Commissioner of the Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile
Short has classified the sharing of goodies to
citizens by political parties as corruption which
must come to an end.

“Vote buying is corruption under the definition
of corruption in our laws and yet few months to
elections, you read about distribution of goodies
like outboard motors, bags of rice and so on”,
he observed.

These distributions, he said are done close to the
elections and it constitutes corruption but it
seems politicians are not aware of it and it
continues because there are no sanctions.

Justice Emile Short was speaking on Bribes and
Gifts at the second series of a symposium
organized by Forum for Media Accountability and
Democratic Governance (FoMADeG) in Accra on
Wednesday under the theme; “Redefining Our ethos
as a society”.

According to him, surveys by Center for Democratic
Development (CDD) and Institute of Economic
Affairs (IEA), Anas revelations and some recent
public statements by respected public figures have
implicated all three arms of government in
corruption, saying it’s considered the norm
rather than the exception.

The former CHRAJ boss pointed out that there is a
general perception that many people aspire to
public office not to serve the people but to
promote their own personal interest, their next of
kins and cohorts.

“It is not too long ago when we had a deputy
minister in a secretly recorded conversation that
her intentions was to quickly make about a million
dollar before she quits politics”, he added,
quizzing that people who go into public office
must be questioned on their motive.

Justice Short further observed that it seems the
greed for wealth and the desire to acquire it in
the quickest possible time is partly responsible
for where Ghana finds itself currently.

To see an end to corruption, he suggested that it
mandates agencies, like CHRAJ, National Commission
on Civic Education (NCCE), Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs), house of chiefs and other
stakeholder organisations to be empowered to
organize regular public education and awareness
programme on the evils and cause of corruption.

Again he suggested other activities including
modules and elements to highlight and strengthen
good ethical values in primary, high Schools,
formal and informal education and also establish
integrity clubs in schools.

“All these are activities which should be done
in conjunction with the imposition of sanctions
and also another important leg of the national and
anti-corruption plan in the redesigning our
institutions to make it difficult for corruption
to be perpetrated” Justice Short offered.

Source - myRadio360

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