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Corruption drains Ghana’s resources
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, March 25, Ghanadot - The
Ghanaian society has now become so endemic with corruption
that one has to offer money, material or their bodies,
in the case of young women, before
being offered any form of assistance.
Corruption is now synonymous with the Ghanaian society and
unless people are bold to point out corrupt officials, there
is no way it could be eliminated or minimised from the
system, according to Nana Owusu
Gyamadu III, a member of the Council of
State.
Setting the ball rolling for the discussions, at a seminar
organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) in
collaboration with the National Catholic Secretariat, the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission and the Christian Council, in
Koforidua in the Eastern part of Ghana,
a member of the Council of State, Nana Owusu Gyamadu III,
says it is unfortunate that almost every person in the
country has to pay bribe before being assisted, a situation
he said was negatively affecting the country's development.
"People are bribed at enstoolment,
destoolment, employment, admissions to schools, colleges and
tertiary institutions, contracts and even for the transfer
of reverend ministers and the best way to fight the canker
is to boldly report those involved," Nana Gyamadu stated.
He called on all especially, the participants, to use the
word of God to help minimise the
corruption by bribery.
For his part, the Executive Secretary of the GIl, Mr Vitus
A. Azeem, added that corruption is impeding Ghana's economic
growth and that his outfit would continue to organise
similar seminars to create the awareness of
this canker as a way of eliminating it from society.
He said although the fight against corruption would not be
easy, he was hopeful that the high rate of corruption would
reduce in due course.
He called on religious leaders to join the crusade against
the canker.
Additionally, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local
chapter of Transparency International (TI) has further
disclosed that Ghana is far from winning the fight against
corruption. This, GII believes, has frustrated the country’s
fight against poverty reduction, disease, ignorance and
efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The GII also stated that if the menace was not addressed, it
could remain an enormous drain on Ghana’s limited resources,
which can better be channelled into education, health and
infrastructure.
According to the 2008 Corruption Perception Index (CPI
2008), Ghana was ranked 67 alongside with Georgia on the
list of 180 countries included in the 2008 index, with a
score of 3.9 out of the maximum possible score of 10.
Indeed, this represents an improvement over Ghana’s 2007
ranking of 69 with a score of 3.7 just as last year’s score
was an improvement over the 2006 performance.. The 2008
score took the country back up to its highest score ever of
3.9, which it obtained in 2002.
But, for lack of a consistent trend, Ghana’s performance on
the 2008 CPI could suggest that some of the good governance
and anti-corruption measures Ghana has put in place in
recent years may be bearing fruits.
However, there is no cause to celebrate this apparent
improvement. The fact remains that Ghana is still stagnating
between the score of 3 and 4 and has yet to attain the half
way score of 5.
Moreover, the fact that Ghana was unable to get a passing
grade 5 or even a near pass, despite promises by the
government to crack down on corruption and reforms such as
the Public Procurement Act and Whistle-blowers Act, indicate
the need for serious improvement.
Additionally, the low levels of enforcement of
anti-corruption laws, the media reports about alleged
corruption that the government does little about and
impunity with which public officials react to such
allegations, no doubt explain Ghana’s failure to score even
4.0 on Transparency Initiative’s Corruption Perception
Index.
Unless members of the public are bold to report on
corruption related issues, there is no way it could be
minimised or eliminated in the
country.
Ghanadot
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