Governance experts have cited the Electoral Commission (EC) for failing to implement the Political Parties Act 2000 and sanctioning political parties which fail to submit their financial statements to the Commission.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and 15 other political parties have still not submitted their financial statements to the EC for scrutiny three months after the Commission’s deadline expired.
So far only seven out of the 25 registered political parties have fully complied with this regulation.
In April this year, the Commission in accordance with the Political Parties Law Act 574 gave the parties up to May 2016 to submit details of their audited accounts or face punitive sanctions.
Pursuant to the Act, all registered political parties are to comply with section 21 (b) which requires that audited accounts of the parties for the year are submitted to the EC.
However, as the close of the deadline, only seven parties out of the 25 parties have compiled their accounts from 2012-15.
The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, however, submitted their report albeit late.
Some lecturers who spoke to Joy News there are several research reports which have established strong links between political party financing and corruption in African countries.
They argue that Ghana’s quest to deal with political corruption will remain a mirage if there is no transparency in the primary source of political party financing.
But as the Chairperson of EC, Charlotte Osei indicates, the Commission's hands are too full to strictly implement the law.
“Many political parties have brought financial statements, we now have to verify the information that they have brought. But we also have to prioritise work we are doing, we can’t stop election-related activities and focus on that,” Mrs Osei said.
According to her, the Commission never said it was deferring but rather, “we said because of the election year activities it is not a priority at the moment but as time permits we are working on it.”
She explained that they are also depending on the same District officers around the country to go and verify all those details.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: [email protected]
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