Correta Scott King, wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr., the assassinated African American civil rights leader, made the following profound observation in describing non-violence. Her observation is relevant in reflecting over corruption. She said: ‘It’s a spiritual discipline that requires a great deal of strength, growth and purging of the self so that one can overcome almost any obstacle for the good of all without being concerned about one’s own welfare.’
Some issues call for deep thinking. Corruption is one of such issues. Corruption comes from a deep place. It’s from a selfish place where one’s concern is solely on the individual welfare, without regard to the collective survival. A scenario is presented below that taps into the core of our moral fibre, deep into the intra-personal ethics of each individual.
Intra-personal ethics is ethics that comes from the very core of one’s being. It is one's essence; what he/she stands for without being prompted. Your intra-personal ethics is what your sense of self directs you to do when no one is watching you but you do it anyway because at your very centre, you believe that it is the wrong or the right thing to do so you choose to do it anyway.
Some soul searching questions: What are some of the things you will not do, no matter the circumstances? How do you know that you would not do them? Have you been exposed to those challenges and temptations before to know that you’ll pass the test? What internal processes do you go through to decide that you would not do that particular thing? When intra-personal ethics is strong, a decision comes very easily and instantly.
The scenario below was told by a colleague, Mr Emmanuel Fianko, during a workshop I attended recently on the Public Procurement Act. Ponder over the story and ask yourself: What would you do in the situation? The scenario can prompt deep thinking and challenge your sense of intra-personal ethics. I call it the GHc2000 funeral donation. For good effect, I’ve made up and added a few details of location, date and names to the original story.
The two-thousand cedi funeral donation:
In October 2010, a state-owned organization (let’s call it the Ghana Natural Assets Company – GNAC) placed newspaper advertisements to invite qualified companies to submit bids by 25th November 2010 for a national competitive tendering to undertake a certain government contract. The GNAC formed a five-member tender evaluation committee made up of its senior staff. The committee’s sole task was to do due diligence to the bids by selecting the best bid based on a pre-determined criteria. The committee began its seating immediately.
The following week, one of the members of the committee, Mr Samuel Agyei (not his real name of course), lost his 74 year old mother Madam Ama Okyerewa of Nsawam in the Eastern Region. The funeral was scheduled for the weekend of 16th February, 2011.
One of the bidders, Mr Prosper Dzotepe, happened to hear of the death of Mr Agyei’s mother and made it a point to attend the funeral, uninvited and unsolicited. On the day of the funeral, Mr Dzotepe wore the traditional black cloth, thrown around his rounded shoulders. At the funeral, he made a donation of GHc2000 at the family donation table. It was the largest donations made at the funeral. He collected a receipt from the family and left his business card with clear instructions that it be giving to Mr Agyei. A family representative handed over the business card to Mr Agyei and informed him of Mr Dzotepe’s donation.
Some insider details: Mr Agyei and Mr Dzotepe had never met. They did not know each other. They were not friends.
Do you see any conflict of interest in this story? Was the GHc2000 a gift or a bribe? If it wasn’t a bribe, then what was the real motivation inside Mr Dzotepe’s brain tissue for giving such a fat donation to Mr Agyei, someone he didn’t know? If you were in Mr Agyei’s shoes, what would you do? Return the money to sender? Or, Ghanaian culture is such that it would be considered rude and inappropriate to return a funeral donation to the donor? Should this donation not qualify as an act of corruption just because it is a funeral donation?
Was Mr Ampofo’s presence at the funeral a business trip or a trip borne out of our rich tradition and culture to show love for the departed? Would you attend just any funeral at all and throw money about in the name of culture? Is our cultural arena choked with opportunities for bribery? Does corruption run through the blood and the veins of our culture, and like a trap, waiting to snatch and draw us into unwholesome practices?
Would you say that because the family members had already taken the donation and issued a receipt, the bribe had already been accepted therefore it cannot be returned? Has Mr Agyei already been corrupted and become entangled in this web of corruption in the name of a funeral donation? Should he keep the money and resign from the committee as a way of saving him from conflict of interest? Should he inform the other members of the committee of the fat funeral donation he has accepted?
If you were in Mr Agyei’s shoes, would you pocket the money and smile all the way to the bank for after all, you did not ask Mr Dzotepe to bring you that donation? Does our culture of gift giving negatively impact on our sense of conflict of interest? Is there a difference between a gift and a bribe? How do we differentiate between the two?
Attempt to answer the above questions for yourself. As you slowly and calmly process your own personal answers, think of further questions and sort out your own sense of intra-personal ethics. If, in the depths of your being, you do not find anything wrong with keeping this funeral donation, then go take a hot shower.
Of pigs, goats and sheep:
As food for thought, here is an Aesop fable entitled: The Piglet, the Sheep and the Goat. It goes: “A young pig was shut up in a barn with a goat and a sheep. On one occasion when the shepherd laid hold of the pig, it grunted and squeaked and resisted violently. The sheep and the goat complained of the pig’s distressing cries, saying: ‘He often handles us and we do not cry out.’ To this, the pig replied: ‘Your handling and mine are very different things. He catches you only for your milk. But he lays hold on me for my very life.’”
News stories about corruption abound in the mass media – our own way of grunting and squeaking and resisting. May be as a country, we are not resisting violently, yet. But the abundance of stories about corruption as well as the deep perceptions of what appears to have become a national canker suggests that it has laid hold on the very life of our country. Corruption milks and wounds Ghana, and strangles the life out of our country. Collectively, we symbolise the lives of the goat, sheep and pig. Not pretty.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com
Some issues call for deep thinking. Corruption is one of such issues. Corruption comes from a deep place. It’s from a selfish place where one’s concern is solely on the individual welfare, without regard to the collective survival. A scenario is presented below that taps into the core of our moral fibre, deep into the intra-personal ethics of each individual.
Intra-personal ethics is ethics that comes from the very core of one’s being. It is one's essence; what he/she stands for without being prompted. Your intra-personal ethics is what your sense of self directs you to do when no one is watching you but you do it anyway because at your very centre, you believe that it is the wrong or the right thing to do so you choose to do it anyway.
Some soul searching questions: What are some of the things you will not do, no matter the circumstances? How do you know that you would not do them? Have you been exposed to those challenges and temptations before to know that you’ll pass the test? What internal processes do you go through to decide that you would not do that particular thing? When intra-personal ethics is strong, a decision comes very easily and instantly.
The scenario below was told by a colleague, Mr Emmanuel Fianko, during a workshop I attended recently on the Public Procurement Act. Ponder over the story and ask yourself: What would you do in the situation? The scenario can prompt deep thinking and challenge your sense of intra-personal ethics. I call it the GHc2000 funeral donation. For good effect, I’ve made up and added a few details of location, date and names to the original story.
The two-thousand cedi funeral donation:
In October 2010, a state-owned organization (let’s call it the Ghana Natural Assets Company – GNAC) placed newspaper advertisements to invite qualified companies to submit bids by 25th November 2010 for a national competitive tendering to undertake a certain government contract. The GNAC formed a five-member tender evaluation committee made up of its senior staff. The committee’s sole task was to do due diligence to the bids by selecting the best bid based on a pre-determined criteria. The committee began its seating immediately.
The following week, one of the members of the committee, Mr Samuel Agyei (not his real name of course), lost his 74 year old mother Madam Ama Okyerewa of Nsawam in the Eastern Region. The funeral was scheduled for the weekend of 16th February, 2011.
One of the bidders, Mr Prosper Dzotepe, happened to hear of the death of Mr Agyei’s mother and made it a point to attend the funeral, uninvited and unsolicited. On the day of the funeral, Mr Dzotepe wore the traditional black cloth, thrown around his rounded shoulders. At the funeral, he made a donation of GHc2000 at the family donation table. It was the largest donations made at the funeral. He collected a receipt from the family and left his business card with clear instructions that it be giving to Mr Agyei. A family representative handed over the business card to Mr Agyei and informed him of Mr Dzotepe’s donation.
Some insider details: Mr Agyei and Mr Dzotepe had never met. They did not know each other. They were not friends.
Do you see any conflict of interest in this story? Was the GHc2000 a gift or a bribe? If it wasn’t a bribe, then what was the real motivation inside Mr Dzotepe’s brain tissue for giving such a fat donation to Mr Agyei, someone he didn’t know? If you were in Mr Agyei’s shoes, what would you do? Return the money to sender? Or, Ghanaian culture is such that it would be considered rude and inappropriate to return a funeral donation to the donor? Should this donation not qualify as an act of corruption just because it is a funeral donation?
Was Mr Ampofo’s presence at the funeral a business trip or a trip borne out of our rich tradition and culture to show love for the departed? Would you attend just any funeral at all and throw money about in the name of culture? Is our cultural arena choked with opportunities for bribery? Does corruption run through the blood and the veins of our culture, and like a trap, waiting to snatch and draw us into unwholesome practices?
Would you say that because the family members had already taken the donation and issued a receipt, the bribe had already been accepted therefore it cannot be returned? Has Mr Agyei already been corrupted and become entangled in this web of corruption in the name of a funeral donation? Should he keep the money and resign from the committee as a way of saving him from conflict of interest? Should he inform the other members of the committee of the fat funeral donation he has accepted?
If you were in Mr Agyei’s shoes, would you pocket the money and smile all the way to the bank for after all, you did not ask Mr Dzotepe to bring you that donation? Does our culture of gift giving negatively impact on our sense of conflict of interest? Is there a difference between a gift and a bribe? How do we differentiate between the two?
Attempt to answer the above questions for yourself. As you slowly and calmly process your own personal answers, think of further questions and sort out your own sense of intra-personal ethics. If, in the depths of your being, you do not find anything wrong with keeping this funeral donation, then go take a hot shower.
Of pigs, goats and sheep:
As food for thought, here is an Aesop fable entitled: The Piglet, the Sheep and the Goat. It goes: “A young pig was shut up in a barn with a goat and a sheep. On one occasion when the shepherd laid hold of the pig, it grunted and squeaked and resisted violently. The sheep and the goat complained of the pig’s distressing cries, saying: ‘He often handles us and we do not cry out.’ To this, the pig replied: ‘Your handling and mine are very different things. He catches you only for your milk. But he lays hold on me for my very life.’”
News stories about corruption abound in the mass media – our own way of grunting and squeaking and resisting. May be as a country, we are not resisting violently, yet. But the abundance of stories about corruption as well as the deep perceptions of what appears to have become a national canker suggests that it has laid hold on the very life of our country. Corruption milks and wounds Ghana, and strangles the life out of our country. Collectively, we symbolise the lives of the goat, sheep and pig. Not pretty.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com
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