Posts

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The Three Stages Of Corruption: How We Are All Part Of The Problem

Some weeks ago, I was in a taxi traveling from one town to another here in Ghana. Beside the fact that the driver was speeding a little over the optimal speed limit, I was terribly annoyed for one other reason. Obvious for selfish reasons, the driver had packed three grown-up women and an adolescent child at the back seats of the taxi that ideally should take two passengers. What was more? Right there in the front seat, I was folding myself into the thinnest possible shape to accommodate a lady whom the driver pleaded will alight just a few distance away. Being lenient enough, I obliged, but was soon to realize, regrettably, I was deceived as the lady parasited my seat all the way to the final destination.

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Group petitions Parliament, three anti-corruption agencies to investigate GCB Board

The Good Governance Advocacy Group, Ghana (GGAGG), has petitioned Parliament and three state anti-corruption agencies to investigate the conduct of the GCB Bank Ghana Limited Board for alleged maladministration.

The three state anti-corruption institutions are the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

Mr Listowell Nana Kusi-Poku, the Executive Director, GGAGG, who made the disclosure on Tuesday at a press conference in Accra, said the people of Ghana had at least 73.14 per cent shares in GCB Bank, hence, the need for them to know about happened within the Bank.

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NCCE survey identifies bribery, favouritism as main forms of corruption

Ghanaians have identified bribery, favouritism and fraud as the main form of corruption in the country a survey conducted by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) under the Accountability, Rule of law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) has established.

The survey, which focused on citizens’ awareness and knowledge of corruption, its causes and effect in Ghana established that corruption was endemic.

The NCCE as part of its civic education engagements has since 2017 been involved in numerous education programmes aimed at supporting Ghana’s anti-corruption and public accountability drive.

The Survey report made available to the Ghana News Agency at Tema on Friday captured a sampled size of 4,220 Ghanaians between 20 to 29 years. The survey used purposive, systematic, and simple random sampling techniques, from 108 districts, On the level of corruption, both studies-a baseline in 2017 and an end-line survey in 2020, established that corruption was high.

Majority of the baseline study respondents representing 91.4 per cent also ranked the level of corruption as high compared with 86.8 per cent in the end-line.

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GACC charges public institutions to publicize procurement data to curb corruption

The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has underscored the need for proactive disclosure of procurement data, to enable the public to access and report corrupt activities in public procurement.

Speaking at a day’s workshop in Accra, on 23th February, 2021, Ms. Faustina Djabatey, Communications Officer at GACC, said, citizens should know about projects being done, the cost involved and as well as the location, in order to eliminate corruption.

“Making procurement data available will enable Civil Society Organisations, the media and the general public to subject such procurements to a thorough scrutiny and if there are any red flag, it will be raised before the contracts are even awarded.

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Fight against corruption: Critical ingredients for achievement of SDGs

The National Commission for Civic Education has tagged public accountability, rule of law, good governance, efficient management of the environment and natural resources devoid of corruption as critical ingredients necessary for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The NCCE recounted that the targets of goal 16 of the SDGs was the call for substantial reduction of corruption and bribery in all its forms and the need for nations to develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.

Ms Josephine Nkrumah, NCCE Chairperson in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday, explained that Ghana like many other developing nations established several anti-corruption and public accountability institutions for the fight against corruption.

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The Difficulty In The Fight Against Corruption

Two major things, in my considered opinion, have been proven to be the major setbacks of development in Ghana and Africa at large: corruption and leadership nemesis. Both are complex subject matters one cannot exhaustively delve into with a single write up. I will leave the subject of leadership nemesis for another day.

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Let’s use Cash Lite and Networth Aggregator to fight corruption in Ghana – Kwaku Antwi-Boasiako

You can have a million anti-corruption laws on Ghana’s statute books and even set up an Office of Special Prosecutor, but if a person can walk to a bank and withdraw ¢21 million in hard cash from his company’s bank account and distribute same in the name of business promotion without any trail of who received the money, then you must be joking if you think we are fighting corruption in Ghana! Once the Management and Board of Directors of the said company are in sync, there is little any auditor or anybody else can do about the disbursement of the ¢21 million in hard cash!

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Less than 2 million Ghanaians pay tax – GACC

About 1.5 million out of the six million eligible Ghanaian taxpayers pay tax, allotting Ghana one of the lowest tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in Africa.

Ghana, therefore, has a lot to do to meet the Sub-Saharan average target of 17 per cent which is above the nation’s 13 per cent mark as her various governments have over the years tried to upscale.

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Make judicious use of corruption reporting platforms – GII

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), local chapter of Transparency International, has encouraged Ghanaians to take advantage of the available corruption reporting platforms to report corruption incidents.

The GII said as part of efforts to make corruption reporting easier, many platforms such as the Advocacy and legal Advocacy Centre (ALAC), IPAIDABRIBE, and Eye on Corruption had been created.

Speaking during a community engagement programme dubbed; “Increasing Citizens Power to Fight Corruption: Contributions of the Judicial Service,” in Takoradi, Mr Michael Boadi, Corporate Affairs Manager of the GII, said Ghanaians must fully make use of such platforms to report corrupt practices and support institutions to work efficiently.

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Private citizens should be allowed to prosecute corruption cases – Prempeh

Private citizens in Ghana should be permitted to prosecute corruption cases in Ghana, Professor Henry Kwesi Prempeh, the Director of the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), has said.

He noted that this will help in the fight against corruption especially when the institutions tasked to fight corruption seem not be to be doing enough on this development.

In most advanced countries with best practices, he said, private individuals are allowed to prosecute corrupt officials.

“Why can’t I take my case to court prosecute the case myself. It happens in other country,” Professor Prempeh said during the Ghana National Forum on Political Party Manifesto, organized by Media General in partnership with Penplusbytes on Wednesday October, 14.

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