Re MPs’ ‘Bribery’: I’ve The Evidence

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Category: Briefs & Memos

Created on Monday, 17 March 2014 00:00

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Ghana- Re MPs’ ‘Bribery’: I’ve The Evidence

…As Honourable Alban Kingsford Sumanu Bagbin prepares to storm Privilege Committee of the Ghanaian Parliament to forcefully distinguish Lobbying from Bribery and Corruption over an allegation that the Honourable lawmakers take bribes but not undisclosed gifts as part of their duties?

BRIEFS & MEMO

“The British parliamentary expenses scandal began in May of 2009, when the Daily Telegraph newspaper began publishing previously-secret information about MPs’ allowances and expense claims. Much of the public outcry focused on the fact that taxpayers had been unwittingly paying for what seemed like extravagant expenses that had little to do with MPs’ official duties; this type of claim was perhaps epitomized by the floating duck house purchased by Sir Peter Viggers (Conservative MP for Gosport) for his pond and reimbursed at taxpayers' expense. In other cases, attention was focused on expense claims that were not so much extravagant as fraudulent: for example, several MPs managed to use a second-home allowance to pay for improvements on two houses by repeatedly switching the designation of their primary and secondary homes. At a time of economic recession and austerity budgets, these abuses struck a nerve with voters, who indicated in surveys that they would severely punish implicated MPs in the upcoming general election.” [1] In this article Asante Fordjour seeks to assess whether the purported give-and-take dealings of our MPs as reavealed by Hon. Alban Bagbin, constitute bribery and corruption or a legitimate lobbying outcomes, as we are being made to believe.

INTRODUCTION

According to Legal-Dictionary, lobbying involves the advocacy of an interest that is affected, actually or potentially, by the decisions of government leaders. Individuals and interest groups alike can lobby governments, and governments can even lobby each other. “The practice of lobbying is considered so essential to the proper functioning of the U.S. government that it is specifically protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The practice of lobbying it is said, “provides a forum for the resolution of conflicts among often diverse and competing points of view; information, analysis, and opinion to legislators and government leaders to allow for informed and balanced decision making; and creates a system of checks and balances that allows for competition among interest groups, keeping any one group from attaining a permanent position of power. Lobbyists can help the legislative process work more effectively by providing lawmakers with reliable data and accurate assessments of a bill's effect.”[2] When then, can a lobby be construed as bribery or corruption?