A Corruption Watch Exclusive: The Political Deception… An Exposé on the Bawumia Campaign

The promise was unequivocal! Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party Bawumia (NPP) in the December 7, 2024 election will not abuse state resources by using state vehicles for his private campaign for president; he will use a campaign bus, Dr. Gideon Boako, the Spokesperson for Dr. Bawumia told JOYNews in an interview in June last year.
“This is a private campaign of the Vice President. And so, he doesn’t want to abuse the incumbency so he decided that for this private political campaign, he is not going to use state resources. So, he has his own set of vehicles. What is important is that we could have afforded to use V8s or whatever, but he thinks that in order to be frugal and also show that he is a leader that is prepared to put to proper use the resources that he has…”

However, a Corruption Watch investigation has uncovered evidence of the use of vehicles belonging to various state agencies in the campaign activities of Bawumia.

When Corruption Watch contacted the Bawumia Campaign through its director of communications, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the campaign agreed that there may be some state vehicles involved in their campaign activities; but explained that the use of such state vehicles were not sanctioned by Vice President Dr Bawumia.

“There’s nothing about abuse of incumbency. We are not there yet; absolutely none. Everything about the state that has to do with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is enjoined on the state to do it. Even if he doesn’t wish for it, he doesn’t have a say. The state is mandated by law to do it for him. He may not want it but he doesn’t have a say. And let me tell you one thing, the use of the bus is not something that the security team were very happy about. They were not. But, he was insistent on showing the way and leading the way in this aspect. Every other thing, even if he wishes not, he doesn’t control it. Two things; he doesn’t control the security system and the detail that is assigned to him – he doesn’t. So he may not wish for it but he doesn’t control it. Secondly, he doesn’t control the fact that I, Miracles, decide that I am a DCE [District Chief Executive) and he is passing to Kwahu so I will follow him – he doesn’t control that. So, these two things he has no control over. But what he has control over is that he has decided that he will run this campaign in a bus for two major reasons; reduce the cost on the campaign and increase our efficiency and effectiveness of this campaign and we are really succeeding in that.

In this investigation, Corruption Watch sought to understand, among other things, how campaigns source for vehicles they use for their campaigns taking a cue from CDD-Ghana’s campaign financing study in 2022 which found that businesses and individuals provide funding for campaigns.
Miracles Aboagye explained that “We are getting vehicles. Some are even giving vehicles to us to use for the campaign. Some have also branded their vehicles and given to our constituencies to use for the campaign – afterwards they take them back. Some, also, have just left their vehicles and said ‘use for the campaign’. So, it comes in different forms. Remember, we have 276 constituencies across the country, all of them prosecuting campaign for us at the constituency level, electoral area and polling stations…So, it’s not every vehicle you see on the street that is branded NPP that is actually owned by the campaign or the party. That’s a matter of fact and that’s something that a very important point…”

Our analysis shows that about sixty percent (60%) or six (6) out of every ten (10) vehicles used by the Bawumia Campaign belong to the state. In addition, twenty percent (20%) or every two (2) out of the ten (10) vehicles in Bawumia’s campaign belong to businesses, some of which,have benefited from single-sourced multi million-cedi contracts given under the Nana Addo-Bawumia administration. The other twenty percent (20%) or two out of ten vehicles in the campaign belong to prominent individuals.

State Agencies’ Vehicles Involved

Some of the state vehicles involved were from the Office of the President (Nissan Patrol), Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (Toyota Landcruiser), Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (Nissan Patrol), Ministry of Special Development Initiatives (Toyota Landcruiser), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Nissan Pick Up), and Ministry of Education (Isuzu Pick Up). Others are Ghana Water Company Limited (Toyota Landcruiser), National Health Insurance Authority (Toyota Landcruiser), Ghana Library Board (Toyota Landcruiser), Asokwa Municipal Assembly (Toyota Hiace High Roof Van), NADMO (Toyota Landcruiser Prado), Minerals Commission (Toyota Landcruiser), Middle Belt Development Authority (Toyota Hilux Pick Up), Nkawie Senior High/Tech School (Toyota Hilux Pick Up), and Nursing Training School – Kumasi (Mitsubishi Pick Up).

Public Secondary School Buses Involved
Some Vehicles belonging to public secondary schools were also involved in campaign activities in spite of a Ghana Education Service (GES) practice against the involvement of public second cycle institutions and its resources for political activities.
Corruption Watch captured several school buses involved in the Bawumia Campaign. The schools whose buses were captured are Nkawkaw Senior High School, Bepong Senior High School, Mpraeso Senior High School, Nkwatia Presby Senior High School (NKWASCO), Kwahu Ridge Senior High School, Salvation Army Senior High School, Akim Wenchi.

Mr. Charles Yao Aheto Tsegah, Former Director General of the Ghana education Service and the Ag. Exec Sec of National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA has described the use of buses of public senior high schools as an infiltration of political influence in Ghana’s education system.

“The practice as has been with the GES on public campaign activities is that the schools are not venues for political campaign. That is the first principle. And it is based on the fact that majority of the children who are in the schools are below the voting age so they are not an area or a group to actually be campaigned to because they are largely not voters.” He added that that “In earlier times, it was even probably stricter in terms of the fact that you couldn’t even go for the buses, so secondary schools were cut out of the whole voting process, their facilities were cut out of the whole voting system and were literally reserved for the purposes of education”.

According to him, this practice has grown incrementally over the years, especially when the politicians started providing the buses for the schools. “I say the politicians because in the end it was couched to look like political individuals within the space where the school is, is influential in causing the bus to come to the school so when they need it, they can come in and it has continued… We won’t limit it to this current regime but it has become more intense in this current regime. In the previous regime, under NDC [National Democratic Congress], it was happening.

Also involved were some senior high school students. On Friday, 11th October 2024, some students of the Jacobu Senior High Technical School were bused to Second Lady Samira Bawumia’s engagement with identifiable groups at Jacobu in the Odotobri Constituency of the Ashanti Region.

Some students of the Jacobu Senior High Technical School at campaign grounds during school hours

Mr. Tsegah described the practice of taking school children out of their schools to political campaign grounds as an abomination.
“That is probably an abomination because it is not allowed because, if you can’t come there to campaign, why do you want to take them out?…Because they are not people who are going to vote anyway…That is why I think it is an abomination because it is not expected that that should even happen.”

Mr. Tsegah called for the enactment of a law to protect the schools and their heads from political control.
“I think it is time to really regulate this and make defined clauses that ensure that these things become bounded by law and therefore can become a strong point of departure for the headmaster to refuse politicians in terms of the way they act,” he proposed.

Businesses Supporting The Campaign
There were also businesses that supported the campaign. Prominent among them were, J. A. Plant Pool Gh Ltd. (JAPP), a member of the Jospong Group of companies; Ronor Motors Ghana Limited, and Birchfield Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the KGL Group.
J. A. Plant Pool Gh Ltd. (JAPP) has been awarded a $178.7-million contract for the District Road Improvement Project (DRIP) through the single-sourced procurement method.

Similarly, Ronor Motors Ghana Limited was awarded a single-sourced contract for the supply of a Landcruiser at Gh¢1,195.000.00 for the Controller and Accountant General’s Department on 19th September, 2022. The company was also awarded about GHS 7.7 million contract by the Ministry of Finance to procure five (5) SUVs and one Cross Country 4×4 vehicle on September 19, 2024.
The KGL Group, which is the parent company of Birchfield Ghana Limited, was awarded a GHS55 million digitalization contract by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) in February 2022.

Prominent Individuals Contributing Vehicles
Among the prominent individuals whose vehicles were found in the pool are Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the NPP vice presidential candidate, Bryan Acheampong, Minister of Food and Agriculture and MP for Abetifi Constituency, Samuel Erickson Abakah, Member of Parliament for Shama, Anthony Abayifa Karbo, a former Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways and senior aide to Dr Bawumia, and Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu, former Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Use of Military
Although the vice-presidential candidate of the NPP is currently not entitled to military security as an MP, he was provided with heavy military security in addition to police security during his campaign tour in the Akwatia Constituency in the Eastern Region.

Military security escort for NPP vice presidential candidate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh

Miracles Aboagye, who is also a presidential staffer under the Akufo-Addo administration, defended the provision of military protection for NPP vice presidential candidate Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
“He is a Member of Parliament. He is entitled to security,” Miracles Aboagye said.
However, he admitted that Dr Opoku Prempeh is only entitled to one police man as his security.

Regardless, Miracles Aboagye insisted that Dr Opoku Prempeh qualifies to apply for additional security – in this case military escort. “He can apply. There are private individuals in this country that are allowed to apply. They apply and they get military escort, they get police escort. Once you have applied, gone through the due process, you haven’t flouted any law.” Miracles Aboagye added that any thing that Dr Opoku Prempeh “is not due, which he believes he needs more of it, he has applied for a fact and it’s been given to him (sic).”
When Miracles Aboagye was pushed for proof, he retorted that “I don’t have to provide any proof for that.”

Corruption Watch understands that the police provide security to all presidential candidates and their vice-presidential candidates.
Corruption Watch also wrote letters to the public second cycle schools, requesting for clarification about the use of the school vehicles for Bawumia’s campaign but none of the schools has returned Corruption Watch’s request for comments.
In the period that Corruption Watch monitored the activities of the Bawumia Campaign from September 4 to November 4, 2024, we found a total of 136 vehicles in campaign activities across four regions. 76 (56%) of the vehicles belong to the state, 32 (23.5%) belong to businesses while the remaining 28 (20.5%) belong to individuals.

Notably, the 136 vehicles exclude identifiable police vehicles, that is, vehicles using GP number plates or visibly embossed with the word ‘Police’, some National security vehicles, and vehicles-for-hire such as Ayalolo and Metro Mass Transit Limited buses – registered to the Ministry of Transport, and an STC vehicle registered to the Agricultural Development Bank.

Corruption Watch’s evidence shows the use of these vehicles by the Bawumia Campaign in Wassa Manso (Wassa East Constituency, Western Region); Odotobri, Bekwai, Asawase, Subin, and Ejura Sekyeredumasi constituencies (Ashanti Region); Upper Manya, Nkawkaw, and Akwatia constituencies (Eastern Region); and La-Dadekotopon and Kpone-Katamanso constituencies (Greater Accra Region).
The vehicles were captured during campaign activities of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP presidential candidate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the NPP vice presidential candidate, and Mrs Samira Bawumia, the Second Lady and wife of Dr Bawumia.

The Bawumia Campaign Secretariat, Asokwa, Kumasi.

Anti-corruption campaigner and Director of Policy Engagement and Partnerships at CDD-Ghana, Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante explains the concept of abuse of incumbency.
“Abuse of incumbency is basically referring to an incumbent or a person who is in official position in the state using their official position and the resources that they are entrusted with for personal gain, mostly during elections. And so, when we refer to incumbents often people think about a presidential candidate but also we are talking about a parliamentary candidate. So, if you are an MP, and you are even in opposition – if you are a sitting MP – you are still an incumbent and you can use that position and the resources that come with it to abuse power unfairly.”
Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Joseph Whittal explains abuse of incumbency within the context of Chapter Twenty-Four of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which contains the “Code Of Conduct For Public Officers.”

He says that “under the constitution – Article 284 – no public officer shall put himself in a situation where his public duty conflicts or is likely to conflict with his personal interest…so, if you take incumbency abuse from the angle of the code of conduct in the constitution, it means that any time a public official, from the presidency to members of parliament, all the elected persons who are seeking political office or public office, whatever they do that will allow their public duty to be influenced by their personal interests, that within the context of CHRAJ, is incumbency abuse.

“Incumbency is taking unfair advantage of the fact that you are a public officer and you are taking advantage of resources that are meant for development generally and passing it off as if you are giving the people or…you are making this possible for them because it is at your command; it’s not. It’s for the people. It has been determined that that is the project that will benefit the people. That is part of the incumbency advantages.”

Since a political party is a private organization, when a member of any political party occupies a public office such as president, vice president, minister of state or member of parliament, that person becomes a public officer and must act or serve in the overriding public interest and not private interest.

Another incident Corruption Watch discovered was the involvement of some state vehicles, including the Asokwa Municipal Assembly’s Toyota Hiace High Roof van in the convoy of Second Lady Samira Bawumia, who the Supreme Court has ruled is not an Article 71 public officer.
However, Miracles Aboagye contests that the Second Lady is entitled to state protection, hence the involvement of state vehicles in her campaign trail.

“The Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana is protected by the state. And, that’s a fact.”
He contested that the Supreme Court ruling was related to payment of remuneration. However, “the same security system of the state provides extensive security for the first and second gentlemen of the land and other members of their family. It includes the Second Lady. So, when you see a state vehicle in the convoy of the Second Lady it is permitted under law because she’s being protected by the security.
However, CHRAJ boss Whittal suggests that the involvement of state vehicles in the fleet of Mrs Bawumia is even more inappropriate because the Supreme Court of Ghana has ruled clearly that First and Second Ladies are not public officers.“Even with the clear decision by the Supreme Court, if in the past we didn’t know whether there were public officers or not, now with the decision in Abronye and First and Second Ladies, they are no longer public officers. But they are still moving around with convoys. Who pays for that? The state.”

For his part, CDD-Ghana D&D Fellow in Public Law and Justice, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare told Corruption Watch that abuse of state resources involves using state assets, funds, or authority to gain an unfair advantage over competitors during elections. Examples include:
● Misusing public funds for campaign activities.
● Using state-owned media to disproportionately promote the incumbent.
● Employing public officials or resources (for example, vehicles or infrastructure) for campaign purposes.

Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, D&D Fellow, CDD-Ghana

The Corruption Watch investigation was conducted as a scoping investigation to uncover potential incidents of abuse of state resources/abuse of incumbency during the 2024 elections campaign by the incumbent Vice President and presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. The investigation was premised on available research and anecdotal evidence that abuse of incumbency continues to be a recurring problem in Ghana’s electoral democracy as well as the lack of legislation that clearly prohibits abuse of state resources for electoral advantage except for conflict of interest prohibitions in the 1992 constitution. It has been the trend that opposition parties always complain about the abuse of state resources by incumbents, particularly incumbent presidential candidates. The abuse of incumbency occurs in many forms and includes, but not limited to, an incumbent’s use of financial, enforcement of regulations and institutional resources of the state which are not typically available for use by opposition candidates.

Dr Kojo Asante highlights the advocacy efforts of CSOs to get duty bearers to rethink the existing state of affairs.
“I have to say that for me when I look at where we’ve come from, at least the public has become more aware of the incidence of abuse of public resources during elections because it didn’t even use to be an issue… And, in the past when we have even released reports, it sort of constrained public behaviour… At least, there is some awareness of this type of behaviour.”

For his part, CHRAJ Boss, Whittal, outlines that the Commission has monitored multiple elections for abuse of incumbency over the past two decades.
“We’ve monitored the past four elections and each of them, issues of incumbency abuse has taken place. We have public officers who otherwise are public servants at the level where their party is going for primaries, not resigning, but using vehicles, using staff of the ministry or the department or the agency to go to the ground to influence people to vote for him. The time of that public officials in terms of the staff, your own use of fuel and the vehicle, and everything that should not should have been done for the organization which has now been turned into your constituency project is an abuse of incumbency.

Solutions
Clearly abuse of incumbency or abuse of state resources for electoral advantage has been a recurring problem since 1992 and politicians are not likely to stop abusing state resources on their own volition or abide by a promise to stop as has been the case with the Bawumia campaign unless corrective action is taken that may include prosecution and penal sanctions.
Sharing best practices, Professor Asare explained that best practices include a requirement for incumbent parties to disclose their use of state resources; mandating state-owned media to provide balanced coverage for all candidates; and involving independent domestic and international observers to report abuses. In addition, there are whistleblower protections that encourage citizens to report misconduct with guarantees of safety as well as enforcing Electoral Codes of Conduct that bind political parties to adhere to codes that prohibit state resource abuse.

Professor Asare, therefore, proposed the following solutions.
● Strengthen Laws and Institutions: Ensure that laws explicitly prohibit misuse of state resources and empower institutions like the Electoral Commission to enforce them.
● Educate Public Servants: Train government officials on the legal and ethical boundaries between public service and political campaigning.
● Increase Transparency: Publish detailed records of government spending and resource use during election periods.
● Promote Citizen Vigilance: Empower citizens and civil society organizations to monitor and report abuses.
● Enforce Sanctions: Impose penalties on individuals or parties found guilty of abusing state resources.

On how to address abuse of incumbency/abuse of state resources in Ghana, Dr. Asante called for the need for incumbent candidates to separate their official role from their political party ambition like it happens in countries like Nigeria and United States.
“This is an issue that has to happen. You see in the manifestoes that there is a commitment; at least in the NDC manifesto I see a commitment to campaign financing, the NPP is looking at other kinds of values around politics. If there is that general commitment, then I think the time is now ready…for us to have a serious, comprehensive legislation for campaign financing” as well as party financing. This is because “you have to address the internal party financing issues and national because the two are connected, and then you can address the governance side. So that, the whole pipeline, there is clear incentives as to what kind of rules that we should all play by to make the competition fair and elections legitimate and trusted.

According to him, the regulation will come with specified campaign timelines and guidelines, a breach of which should attract sanctions like disqualification and prosecution.
“What needs to happen is that the legislation has to be clearer and really that’s where some of us are pushing for campaign financing and party financing reform agenda because that’s where I believe you also capture the issue of abuse of incumbency – the probitions, the caps, if a president in office is going to stand for election what are the dos and don’ts? What are the things that they have to pay for? Setting up a campaign period so that you can track. All of those things will have to come through campaign financing reform and then it’s clearer for law enforcement, it’s clearer for citizens to say this person has offended. And, some of the sanctions should come with disqualifying you from participating.”

CHRAJ Boss Whittal wraps it all up with a request for strong leadership from the president and the judiciary.
“We need a visionary, a strong leader who can really commit himself and say I have come to do this regardless – even if I’m voted out – I have done my part and strengthen the legal framework. We need very committed judges who will not use technicalities to get people before them out instead of jailing them. We need such commitment; examples will send a signal to people. Until then, we would have a problem.”

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Source; Frederick Asiamah and Francisca Enchill

November 30, 2024