New Code Of Ethics For Public Officials Soon

By Edmund Mingle
Wednesday, 25 March 2009

The government is developing a new code of ethics for public officials as part of measures to check corruption and improve productivity, Vice President John Dramani Mahama, has announced.

He said the government was refining existing codes of ethics in the public sector to ensure that public officials work within a specified framework that would plug loopholes for corruption.

Speaking at a meeting with a South African business delegation that is promoting ethics in the business sector, at the Castle, Osu in Accra on Monday, Mr Mahama said the new code would ensure that offending officials answer for breaching the provisions of the code.

“There is no doubt about the political will to fight corruption,” he told the delegation led by the Right Rev. Dr. Yaw Frimpong Manso, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Graham Power, Chairman of Power Group of Companies, a South Africa based leading civil engineering firm that is also championing transparency and integrity in the African business community.

The Vice President also spoke of the government’s new assets declaration regime, in which the government was encouraging all public office holders to declare their assets and have it gazetted for public scrutiny, saying the new regime was a departure from the situation where “records of declared assets were locked under key.”
That, he said, was an indication that the government was fighting corruption by “will and deed.”

He lauded the work of the Power group of companies and said their objectives were in line with government’s desire to promote transparency in all spheres of the Ghanaian society.

Touching on business, Vice President Mahama, asked the company to consider investing in the agricultural industry since the sector had the potential to significantly cut poverty, especially in the rural areas.
He also urged the Presbyterian Church to increase its investments in the agricultural sector in support of government agenda to modernise agriculture industry, and assured of government support.

Mr. Power, who stopped over in Ghana on his way to Cote d’Ivoire for a “Global Day of Prayer,” a programme that brings together millions of people, especially from the business community across Africa and beyond to pray together, said the company had through its advocacy work, been encouraging its partners and other firms to do business with companies that uphold ethical principles and transparency.

“We have been challenging leaders in governance and business to be ethical, faithful, transparent, and to report fraud,” he said.