A recent story about the sentencing of some National Health Insurance Authority personnel for their part in a scam has really left me scratching my head. There were three accused persons, yet one of them who pleaded guilty managed to escape with nothing more than an order to refund the stolen money.
Now a situation like this on its own is not particularly remarkable, but you couple this with other happenings in the country; such as the Presidential Committee sittings where people come and admit their wrong doings, apologise and then leave unscathed, and I see something seriously wrong with our concept of justice in this country.
The case involving two NHIA officers and a co-conspirator, which led to the scheme being defrauded to the tune of Ghc 131,409.26, was resolved after the judge sentenced the two to five years imprisonment.
The third party in the swindling case, Juliana Opoku-Manu, the administrator of the Samatex Hospital whose stipends were diverted by the trio for their own gain, pleaded guilty to the charges and managed to escape with a directive to refund her part of the money.
This might be nothing to raise a storm over, she might have accepted a plea deal to help nail the other two; but I mention this because cases like these occur far too often down here, and far too many times we confuse an admission of guilt with contrition and thus let the offending party go scot free.
That should not be the case; an admission of guilt does not make the offence committed any less wrong! By allowing people the luxury of being let go after admitting their wrong we’re just setting an unfortunate precedent for beating the system in the future.