Ghana’s Lands Commission Fraud, Bribery, God, and Me
Navigating Corruption: A Personal Account of Land Registration and Bribery in Ghana’s Lands Commission
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I am meeting a gentleman from the Lands Commission to map and measure the exact area of land I’m registering with them. He has agreed to meet me at five on a Sunday morning in Madina to drive to the land in Aburi South. He has insisted on being back in time for Church by 7:30 am., which is laughable to me, given Ghanaian traffic even on a Sunday morning and the location of my land. Indeed, when we meet with a Madina sky still under the cloak of darkness–he’s already visibly upset that I’m fifteen minutes late.
You see, I went to the office of the Lands Commission some weeks ago to register two plots of land I had just bought, which is a compulsory requirement of Ghanaian Conveyancing Law. But it soon became apparent that the gentleman handling the case would do so through his private company. According to the receipt I insisted on getting after paying him over 1000% more than the land registration fee should be, the service is being provided by his private business rather than via the Lands Commission department.
He takes me to his four-wheel drive vehicle parked in the Commission’s courtyard and has me sit in the back, counting out the large Cedi notes I have had to go and get from the nearest cashpoint. I am to pay him half of the money upfront. The balance when the job is done. He assures me it will take no more than two or so months. As opposed to the standard six months to a year, depending on the size of your bribe. Pay the usual local government land registration fee, and you will never see your land title documents with your case at the bottom of an endless pile of rubble or in the nearest trash can. That’s how it works here in Ghana. Bribery is the order of the day, and I had just become another of its unwitting victims.
Although the gentleman is employed and paid by Lands Commission, a local government department (where I am the quiet one in a sea of gabbling registrants), he is doing business privately. In other words, he’s committing fraud by meeting me this morning before attending Church. I suppose he’ll ask God’s forgiveness before he embarks on more fraudulent activities at work tomorrow. But that’s probably why he’s in such a hurry to get to Church… to confess his sins and be absolved in time for the next plot.
It is a measure of how much more I’ve paid over and above the going rate for land registration in Ghana that has brought him out at the crack of dawn, however reluctantly, without further charges to my pocket. Perhaps he has had a pang of conscience or been born again since we last met. I suppose I should count my blessings. Strictly speaking, agreeing to meet me to plot the coordinates of this bushland is not his job. The coordinates of this land, and therefore his ability to locate the plot on a grid, should have been completed as part of the seller’s obligation to correctly identify the plot for sale and outline it in a lease.
But our man from the Lands Commission has been calling the seller, a local young surveyor, without success. Since he’s got his money, the chap is no longer answering his phone. So, our Godly Lands Commissioner has decided to get on and plot the land coordinates himself if he is to have the other half of his bribery cash in time for easter. “God helps those who help themselves,” I guess. And that’s the real reason why we’re here this morning. But with just two weeks to easter, I suspect the Land Commission’s rep will be late for Church this morning and the resurrection. Lost on him is the irony of committing fraud and bribery while holding on to faith in God, which is a stark reminder that we must stay vigilant against corruption, even in the places we least expect to find it.
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