In places where leaders are elected to public offices, reputation matters more than loyalty. It is in fact pretty much a norm, internationally.

Take for instance France whose President, Nicolas Sarkozy, recently called for the resignation of Daniel Bouton, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Societe Generale, after the largest ever rogue-trading scandal worth seven billion dollars was revealed. To his credit, the CEO himself had immediately offered to resign even though he claimed no direct knowledge of the scandal. His and Sarkozy’s moves were rather out of respect for the institution and the public.

Although far smaller than the amount swindled in France, it is equally difficult to get away from talk of the National Bank of Ethiopia’s (NBE) phoney gold purchase, even three months after the news was first brought to public attention.

The astonishing loss of close to 158 million Br in public resources to a gilded gold purchase by the central bank even outshines the upcoming elections, the first after the controversy of 2005, no matter how hard candidates and the government try to draw interest to respective campaigns and electoral battles.

It should not be surprising; apart from the mind-boggling amount of public money involved, no official, except for a couple of announcements made by the Federal Police, dared to offer a bewildered public any explanation.

Finding who committed the actual crime is still at the beginning stages of the judicial process. The number of alleged accomplices and chain linking alleged perpetrators is still out of the grasp of a public who entrusts the government to be the custodian of national resources.

In the absence of any official explanation and compounded with a deafening silence, exactly how the scandal took place and the intricacy of the caper are issues of interest to the wider public. The depth of officials’ involvement is understandably a curious one, when some big names oversee the central bank.

Most importantly, the crucial weak link in a system of a public institution procuring a highly valued precious commodity and age-old store of value has yet to be uncovered. It is here, in the search to pinpoint the institutional failure, that a vital step for mending a process that will be necessarily in place in the future and still responsible for millions of public fund is represented.

Surprisingly, in the wake of all this uncertainty, there have been no measurable moves on the part of the government or any high level official to come out and take the blame for allowing such a travesty to occur under their watch. Rather, the public is left to wonder, feeling insecure in their government’s ability to be the custodian of resources, at how deep the failures, negligence and corruption run.

It is here where someone with a high enough rank should take a lesson from France in voluntarily or through proper negotiations, with the top echelons of the government, step forward to claim responsibility. A figure with the conscious to come to the forefront and admit that a great tragedy has occurred under his or her watch is very necessary. Doing so should be viewed only as a sign of respect to the public, as opposed to the current ambiguity, with a possible consequence of damaging the public’s confidence in quality of governance.

PUTTING A FACE TO THE SCANDAL

It is neither surprising nor troubling that the alleged perpetrators of the crime have yet to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The judicial process responsible for establishing the guilt of wrongdoers is not meant to be executed at lightening speed.

It is rather a system that should pride itself on attention to detail and the virtue of truth. All suspects alleged to have a part in this crime deserve a fair and open trial; while it may take months for the courts to get to the bottom of the phoney gold scandal, it is important that they act in a manner that is far from populist influence.

On the law enforcement side, it appears that members of the Federal Police should be recognised for uncovering the extent of the crime and stolen merchandise itself. Their investigation has even reached an international level and appears to continue. Whatever little official statement came so far, it was from them.

But where these processes will take time, there has been a vacuum in swift reaction from high level officials who must, inevitably, take some blame for oversight of the process but who will surely forever be branded by a scandal that occurred under their watch or during their tenure. No one has taken the unenviable but essential step of putting a face and office at the helm of a gold procurement process that has dramatically showed its inadequacy to serve the public.

While it is a bold move that would break both the career and personal reputation of whomever is to take the fall, the nation needs to simplify and centralise the problem. It is part of a national healing process after confidence in public institutions has been so severely shaken. For good reason, though.

The top official who comes forward and says directly that a mistake has been committed, responsibility falls into whatever office and headed by that person and that the error is egregious enough to merit a resignation, will be doing a great service to the country.

Rightfully, the public is expecting this to happen. A person will be associated with the scandal and citizens will be able to close the matter in their minds, knowing that whoever that person is, he or she is no longer administering institutions they put their trust and resources in.

DEAFENING, IF NOT DAMAGING, SILENCE

The current state of affairs is far from a public satisfied with a process that is resolving a tragedy, and moving forward on the backs of resignations and blame settling. It reveals that officials are not conducting public duties in a manner that is accountable to the nation they are sworn to serve.

The immediate figure that should have already been rushing to the public spotlight to explain things – or at least share in the blame and promise a swift and unforgiving resolution - is the Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Teklewold Atnafu. Sadly, he has remained relatively hushed on the subject. It is not uncharacteristic of him.

While the customary silence by Governor Teklewold on such sticky issues as monetary policy targets and interest rate adjustments he might be making or why he has not been aggressive enough in his measure to offset inflation is disappointing, the silence in the face of criminal activity involving huge sums of public money is inexcusable. Public statements should have been issued immediately after the discovery that phoney gold bars were found in its vault, and series of apologies issued in respect to the public.

It took a summoning to the Finance Standing Committee to Parliament for the man at the helm of the institution ultimately responsible for the gold in its vaults to make statements a curious public could access. While this move was proper, it is a wonder that the Governor or someone under his immediate supervision was not rushing to the media to explain what went wrong. Courageous resignation is still in order; it does not seem to be too late.

At the very top of the public ladder is, of course, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Even the leader, who has been more vocal of late in holding consultations with a number of groups, has been reluctant to talk about the issue. Though possibly not related, albeit unfortunate, the Prime Minister has discontinued his quarterly press conferences that cover a variety of issues, last occurring almost seven months ago.

It is always to the benefit of public discourse to have the top brass address the nation. But now, in a time of crisis, it is critically basic.

Meles or someone with a similar level of clout should be speaking publicly and pushing for someone to take blame in the NBE gold issue. A lesson from the French President would be appropriate, if not helpful.

In the absence of these bold moves, the nation is in a state of bewilderment. As citizens prepare to head to the ballot boxes next month, albeit indifferently, it is questionable how much confidence they will have in any elected official. This is not good for a country struggling to rebuild trust in accountability after it was so badly damaged.

The government must realise that the consequences of allowing the phoney gold scandal to hang in the air much longer will be devastating far beyond the amount of money lost. It is critical that swift action is taken so that this does not fade into another deep scar in a history of distrust. It starts with someone high enough to take the blame and consequently resign and another offer the public a long overdue explanation.