Let's Build Strong Institutions ... to Consolidate Country's Democracy - Prof. Ayee

By Abigail Annoh

The penchant for creating multiple institutions to address Ghana's perennial problems has been identified as a bane to consolidating the country's democracy.

Political Scientist, Professor Joseph Atsu Ayee who described the current state of institutions in the country as "weak and in crisis" said the fragmentation of institutions weakened their capacity to perform their mandates "resulting in overlaps, turf wars and institutional paralysis."

Delivering the keynote address at the 70th New Year School in Accra yesterday, the Professor urged that attention was turned to strengthening existing institutions through building attitudinal change, enforcing rules and regulations and demanding accountability.

Held on the theme; "Building strong institutions for democratic consolidation in Ghana", the event brought together members from different political divide in the country, civil society, traditional leaders and academia to foster discussions on deepening the country's democracy.

Prof. Ayee who enumerated gains made by the country so far in promoting democracy including the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, sustaining relative peace, attaining a middle income status and holding violent-free elections over the years, maintained that, it was high time "we moved away from the complacency" to building a really free and just society.

"Governments have been ineffective in the dimensions of state capacity in terms of regulation (establishing and enforcing rules that guide or regulate societal behavior) and administrative competence (routine ability to manage the human and material resources of the state and ensure accountability in service delivery).

We have also failed in building technical expertise and knowledge to formulate and implement technical decisions as well as our extractive ability to raise revenue needed to pay for expenses of implementing policies and goals," he bemoaned.

The Senior Fellow for Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) attributed the lapses in efficient service delivery, the inability to fight corruption, lost of public confidence in public institutions and insanitary conditions among others plaguing the country to weak institutions, a situation, he feared threatened the sustenance of "our democracy."

Prof. Ayee believed the reconstruction of the Ghanaian society to internalize values of developmental governance capacity including political, social and economic openness, inclusiveness and accountability was critical to secure the country's democracy.

He recommended that bottlenecks to institutional reforms and exclusion were addressed while the country reviewed or amended existing laws to strengthen formal institutions at the national, regional and local levels.

"What stops Parliament for instance from considering at least five of the amendments made by the Constitutional Review Committee when we spent about 6.1million in undertaking such an exercise yet till date none has been implemented?," he wondered.

Prof. Ayee among others further called for restraint in the political bias in recruiting people into key institutions, urging for a "cross-party approach" in addressing the country's problems while government improves budgetary and logistical support to institutions to enable them effectively deliver on their mandate.

"The governments should get the politics right. Transformational leadership is necessary to design and enforce policy and institutional framework and the attitudinal and behavioral changes.

Building strong institutions include bolstering democratic arrangements through checks and balances, accountability, civil rights, decentralization, democratic discourse and norms of anti-corruption, of rejection of favoritism, of meritocracy, of serving the public interest," he advised.

The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye who opened the school, could not agree more with the Political Scientist on the need to review the country's existing laws particularly to decrease the abuse of power by officials, promote decentralization and ensure high women representation in governance processes.

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