Let’s just cut to the chase here. Voodoo has set in. Where? Into calculations of money disbursed from the Consolidated Fund, the account that belongs to us all – into which cocoa money, gold money, oil money, tax money, loan money, gift/grant money and everything-that-comes-in money is deposited. And…..from which expenditure for road money, salary money, hospital money, education money, public toilet money, poverty alleviation (sorry, poverty reduction!) money, thievery money and everything-that-goes-out money is withdrawn.
Here are the different figures that have been tossed around – in a chronological order of information release. At the story’s breaking in the 2010 Auditor-General’s report, the amount was pegged at a dizzying GH¢58,905,974.13. Then, the opposition NPP joined the high-drama dance of calculations and miscalculations in the midst of denials, and came up with a mind-boggling grand total of GHc92 million. According to them, the 58 million was paid out in 2010. Then, as recently as 2011, another 34 million was paid as judgement debt top-up, bringing the total to 92 million. Fair enough!
Oh, not so fast! The NPP figure was too obscene so on Thursday, 12th January, 2012, Auditor-General Richard Q Quartey carelessly stepped into the delicate calculus fray to do a classic flip-flop voodoo-like maths and released new figures. To accomplish this feat, he literally entered his magic calculator toolbox and exclaimed, “Oops!” – not to Parliament as the 1992 Constitution instructs, but to the mass media! In a press statement, the Office of the Auditor-General maintained that only one payment of GH¢17,094,493.54 was paid to Mr Woyome in 2010 and not GH¢58,905,974.13. That was an awkward press statement. Was that meant to confuse or to clarify? It did the former.
In the midst of the confusion, the President Mills’ EOCO probe came up with what is the most recent figure of GHc51 million. That figure seems to be settling in now and with that, not much reference is being made to erstwhile 17 million, 58 million and 92 million. It’s so confusing.
Enduring Question: Was the total amount paid out to Mr Woyome 17, 58 or 51 – millions, that is! We The People of Ghana at this point must be told, without any more game-playing, exactly how much was paid. Why is the mathematics so difficult? For instance, does the Auditor-General disagree with the EOCO’s maths after he has clearly disagreed with himself and his own original calculations? Hmm!
A Modest Proposal: Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock
I’ve a bank account with UniBank on which I’ve signed up for e-banking services. With that, the slightest activity in my account instantly triggers a statement on my mobile phone and email --simultaneously. Here is one such statement I received last week: “Debit Alert! GHC1.00 has been debited to your Account No:…on 31/1/2012. Detail: ATM Maintenance Fee. Balance: GHC…” We could adopt this model for the shareholders of the Consolidated Fund – the people of Ghana.
Another model to consider is the USA National Debt Clock. It is a clock-like devise that ticks as the debt increases or decreases. At any moment in time (to the second or minute or hour), a citizen can check on the debt status. As I write this article, on Wednesday January 8, 2012 at 05:00:05 PM GMT, the outstanding public debt stood at $15,345,007,978,608.32. For a bonus, accompanying the information on national debt is that of the estimated population and how much of the debt is the share of each citizen.
So with the estimated US population at the time I checked the debt clock, each citizen’s debt burden stood at $49,153.07. For planning purposes, this is as precise as can be. And citizens who are concerned at this ridiculous debt burden are encouraged to tell Congress or the White House.
The US Debt Clock presents a reality check for the citizenry. It is displayed in public, ‘fiili-fiilii’ for everyone to see. It doesn’t need privileged official guestimates (guess plus estimates) or voodoo maths to vomit it out through a probe instituted on a rush by President Obama in a crisis situation when all that can go wrong will go wrong (Murphy’s Law) and when one figure has no resemblance to figures presented by other government agencies. The US National Debt Clock is the practice of transparency at its best!
Since in our own sticky matter, we can’t do simple maths on what goes in and out, we could adopt a version of this clock and call it something like the Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock. It should be placed in all regional and district capitals and at places where we can all see (fiili-fiili), day and night, rain or shine. The clock must be powered by solar energy since we can’t rely on electricity or batteries! You know how we do! Ha!
But as back-up, whenever an amount of say one million gargantuan Ghana cedis (the new one; forget about the old because that is history!) is withdrawn or deposited, the information should instantly be texted to the cell phones of all of us (after all, mobile phone penetration continues to increase to super-high proportions with everybody and their mama and papa clutching on to a phone).
If we’re fools, we can decide to ignore the SMS alert. But since we’re a bunch of smart people, we could carry on conversations ‘in tro-tro’, chop-bars, ‘blue kiosks’, parties, churches, mosques, workplaces and wherever else we congregate to chit-chat. A typical conversation in a chop bar would go like this, “Eh, my brothers and sisters, last week alone, 20 million cedis was withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund oh!” “Charley, as for this one, it’s too much oh!” “We no go sit down! Walahi!”
Apart from Mr Woyome, a mega-ton of money was paid to several others who might be jubillating over our obsession at the Woyome affair. See, Construction Pioneers must be salivating over their casino-like GHc70,071,704.99 judgement debt settlement, praying that Ghanaians will bury the stinky matter in the backyard of history. We’ll see!
Specifically, why is it that there is no agreement on the amount of money paid out to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome? Three different figures have been bandied around. In fairness to the children of Ghana, we the adults of Ghana must get the maths right because our irresponsible debts have repercussions for future generations. If they can’t get the Woyome figures right, how then can we trust other figures from the Auditor-General, Accountant-General, Ministry of Finance and other stewards of our national purse?
The Maths Discrepancies:Here are the different figures that have been tossed around – in a chronological order of information release. At the story’s breaking in the 2010 Auditor-General’s report, the amount was pegged at a dizzying GH¢58,905,974.13. Then, the opposition NPP joined the high-drama dance of calculations and miscalculations in the midst of denials, and came up with a mind-boggling grand total of GHc92 million. According to them, the 58 million was paid out in 2010. Then, as recently as 2011, another 34 million was paid as judgement debt top-up, bringing the total to 92 million. Fair enough!
Oh, not so fast! The NPP figure was too obscene so on Thursday, 12th January, 2012, Auditor-General Richard Q Quartey carelessly stepped into the delicate calculus fray to do a classic flip-flop voodoo-like maths and released new figures. To accomplish this feat, he literally entered his magic calculator toolbox and exclaimed, “Oops!” – not to Parliament as the 1992 Constitution instructs, but to the mass media! In a press statement, the Office of the Auditor-General maintained that only one payment of GH¢17,094,493.54 was paid to Mr Woyome in 2010 and not GH¢58,905,974.13. That was an awkward press statement. Was that meant to confuse or to clarify? It did the former.
In the midst of the confusion, the President Mills’ EOCO probe came up with what is the most recent figure of GHc51 million. That figure seems to be settling in now and with that, not much reference is being made to erstwhile 17 million, 58 million and 92 million. It’s so confusing.
Enduring Question: Was the total amount paid out to Mr Woyome 17, 58 or 51 – millions, that is! We The People of Ghana at this point must be told, without any more game-playing, exactly how much was paid. Why is the mathematics so difficult? For instance, does the Auditor-General disagree with the EOCO’s maths after he has clearly disagreed with himself and his own original calculations? Hmm!
The folks at the Ministry of Finance, especially Dr Kwabena Duffuor should by now come out to inform Ghanaians of the total money he released from the Consolidated Fund to Mr Woyome. His two able deputies – ahh, principally, the outspoken feisty Fiifi Kwettey should have released this simple information by now! That act will clear this ridiculous mathematics discrepancy at the marketplace.
Taflatse ten times, what is so difficult and complicated about doing a simple subtraction of hard cash from our Consolidate Fund? If this simple mathematics cannot be done, then it bears testimony to suspicions that the coffers of Ghana are being managed in a chaotic manner. A Modest Proposal: Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock
I’ve a bank account with UniBank on which I’ve signed up for e-banking services. With that, the slightest activity in my account instantly triggers a statement on my mobile phone and email --simultaneously. Here is one such statement I received last week: “Debit Alert! GHC1.00 has been debited to your Account No:…on 31/1/2012. Detail: ATM Maintenance Fee. Balance: GHC…” We could adopt this model for the shareholders of the Consolidated Fund – the people of Ghana.
Another model to consider is the USA National Debt Clock. It is a clock-like devise that ticks as the debt increases or decreases. At any moment in time (to the second or minute or hour), a citizen can check on the debt status. As I write this article, on Wednesday January 8, 2012 at 05:00:05 PM GMT, the outstanding public debt stood at $15,345,007,978,608.32. For a bonus, accompanying the information on national debt is that of the estimated population and how much of the debt is the share of each citizen.
So with the estimated US population at the time I checked the debt clock, each citizen’s debt burden stood at $49,153.07. For planning purposes, this is as precise as can be. And citizens who are concerned at this ridiculous debt burden are encouraged to tell Congress or the White House.
The US Debt Clock presents a reality check for the citizenry. It is displayed in public, ‘fiili-fiilii’ for everyone to see. It doesn’t need privileged official guestimates (guess plus estimates) or voodoo maths to vomit it out through a probe instituted on a rush by President Obama in a crisis situation when all that can go wrong will go wrong (Murphy’s Law) and when one figure has no resemblance to figures presented by other government agencies. The US National Debt Clock is the practice of transparency at its best!
Since in our own sticky matter, we can’t do simple maths on what goes in and out, we could adopt a version of this clock and call it something like the Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock. It should be placed in all regional and district capitals and at places where we can all see (fiili-fiili), day and night, rain or shine. The clock must be powered by solar energy since we can’t rely on electricity or batteries! You know how we do! Ha!
But as back-up, whenever an amount of say one million gargantuan Ghana cedis (the new one; forget about the old because that is history!) is withdrawn or deposited, the information should instantly be texted to the cell phones of all of us (after all, mobile phone penetration continues to increase to super-high proportions with everybody and their mama and papa clutching on to a phone).
If we’re fools, we can decide to ignore the SMS alert. But since we’re a bunch of smart people, we could carry on conversations ‘in tro-tro’, chop-bars, ‘blue kiosks’, parties, churches, mosques, workplaces and wherever else we congregate to chit-chat. A typical conversation in a chop bar would go like this, “Eh, my brothers and sisters, last week alone, 20 million cedis was withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund oh!” “Charley, as for this one, it’s too much oh!” “We no go sit down! Walahi!”
With these two strategies combined (Ghana Income and Expenditure Clock and text messaging), We The People may be able to save our leaders (and trickster businessmen who want to do us harm) from themselves. Temptations are enhanced when you operate in the dark!
Postscript: Apart from Mr Woyome, a mega-ton of money was paid to several others who might be jubillating over our obsession at the Woyome affair. See, Construction Pioneers must be salivating over their casino-like GHc70,071,704.99 judgement debt settlement, praying that Ghanaians will bury the stinky matter in the backyard of history. We’ll see!
