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Dr. Saswat Barpanda speaks on political and micro-finance corruption in Ghana.

Corruption and Cohesion meets Central Government: Microfinance Scam takes to Political Office

By IGI Global Author Relations Team on May 25, 2017
Corruption and Cohesion meets Central Government: Microfinance Scam takes to Political OfficeDr. Saswat Barpanda
In 2016, Ghana saw one of their largest financial scams take place when microfinance organizations--The God is Love Fun Club, DKM Microfinance, Little Drops Financial Services, Jaster Motors and Investment Limited and Care for Humanity Fun Club--scammed over 400 people out of millions of Ghana cedis. The scandal is now making headlines once again as Alexander Gyan, the former manager of God is Love Fun Club, has been nominated to be the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Kintampo South.

Microfinance organizations have been giving people a second chance by allowing citizens to take out small loans to start their own businesses. All around the world, they are sparking financial activity from allowing impoverished women to provide for their families to creating the world’s largest economies. However, this force of good is often used for corruption.

Dr. Saswat Barpanda, assistant professor at Amrita University and contributing author to IGI Global’s International Journal of Sustainable Economies Management (IJSEM)), recently speculated on the scandal and explained how citizens can protect themselves from political corruption and becoming victims of a microfinance scam.
In your opinion, has microfinance been used more for social good or as a social tool to make money?

When the concept of microfinance was started, it perceived as a financial tool being used for social good. But later on, most of the microfinance institutions came up with an incongruous mission of being financially profitable and socially sustainable. This results in a state of mission drift where the purity of the mission is being diluted. Now it has increasingly become a social instrument used to generate money, and consequently its novelty has been mislaid. This is one reason why microfinance often runs into dense crisis and chaos. Several field studies have evidence that even when lending programs efficaciously reach borrowers, there is only an inadequate upsurge in entrepreneurial activity and even the decline in poverty rates is found unsubstantial.

Do you believe that someone who is associated with a company that committed a scam should be eligible for a political position?

With the growth of corporate attempt to influence government policies through lobbying, political donations and even bribery, the issues of business relations with government has increasingly become a key facet of business ethics. Government has a crucial role to play in establishing “the rules of the game” by which the ethical judgement will be evaluated. “The rules of the game” dictates the government on the degree of openness towards adapting a revolving door policy. Looking specifically at laws codifying right and wrong business practices, it is important to recognize that the law is one aspect of the broader idea of regulation in business. Although laws are important in business ethics, it is the role of regulations that is most vital to understand, because it is these regulations that tend to operate in the grey areas of business ethics. A shady employee of a company which committed a scam has lost the trust of the stakeholders and citizens and thus won’t be accepted by the citizens as their representative. The ethical problem in business government relationship is to be found in the fiduciary relationship that government has to society. This means that the government’s responsibility is to act in society’s best interest.

In your opinion, does this nomination showcase corruption in government? If so, how can citizens protect themselves from this corruption?

Yes. When the issue is about a corrupt business practitioner heading towards ethical leadership in politics, the storylines are then seen as fustian spiked with pretense. The citizen starts looking at the government functioning with a raised eyebrow.

As ordinary citizens, we can battle corruption steadily by being heedful in campaigning and backing up various anticorruption programs of the government. It’s a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders of government starting from pressure group, civil society organizations, corporate houses judiciary and the media to fight against patronizing corruption. With voluminous hands, we can bring hope, trust and aspirations. The only weapon the common man possess is proper education. The citizens must have a gut of courage, using their mouth to speak for the truth, eyes to strive for justice and their rational minds to contemplate judiciously. Also, by using Internet technology, social media and sharing what they know is the best way a common man can contribute.

How can citizens protect themselves from being scammed by microfinance companies?

I think there are some key internal control issues that create a wrong culture in the microfinance organizations. These organizations are struggling to understand between purpose and profit. They forget their reason of existence. Burrowers should be aware about the control environment or contextual factors. Internal controls and comprehensive governance become even more imperative when microfinance operations move into higher-risk extents, whether it’s an introduction of new products or delivery channels or recruitment of new staff. These types of changes ultimately lead to so called "people risks". These are risks that are related to training of employees in new products and processes. It is the employee who are the touchpoint between organization and borrowers or client. Employees who join the MFI need to learn the culture of the company and the control environment.
A sincere thank you to Dr. Saswat Barpanda for taking the time to speak with IGI Global and sharing his thoughts on microfinance and the recent nomination. For more information on microfinance, please take the time to review the publications below:

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