War on corruption in Ghana
Citizens call on government to keep vote promises
Accra –Ghana’s government is facing growing calls to keep its electioneering pledge to stamp out corruption.
The administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo, which took office in January, has in recent weeks seen protesters taking to the streets to raise awareness against corruption.
Last month, hundreds marched onto the Economic and Organised Crime Office in Accra to call for the prosecution of offenders and for stolen money to be recovered.
OccupyGhana, a citizen pressure group, began taking corruption cases to court last year.
This month, the Supreme Court ruled in its favour after it submitted a petition calling on the auditor-general to punish anyone found to have misappropriated state funds.
“If you want to strengthen democracy, you have to strengthen the legal system,” OccupyGhana spokesman Nana Sarpong AgyemanBadu said.
“If we put confidence in the judiciary, people in the executive and legislature cannot get away with what they do.”
Ghana’s previous government was hit by a succession of corruption scandals, including in the judiciary.
In 2015, undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, released secretly filmed footage of magistrates, circuit and high court judges taking bribes to influence verdicts.
Anas, whose motto is “name, shame and jail”, said every citizen should fight corruption and no institution should be “sacrosanct”.
Anas, also called “the James Bond of journalism”, operates in a variety of disguises.
“When I compare the past and today, it is clear to me that the average Ghanaian is beginning to understand that fighting corruption is not the job of government only but everybody’s ,” said Anas.
In Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, Ghana scored 43% out of 100 last year, down from 47% in 2015.
A score of 100 indicates corruption-free.
Nearly two-thirds of the 18 000 participants across Ghana suggested corruption had increased in the 12 months to May last year.
Just over three-quarters said they had to pay a bribe to tax officials, and more than half reported having to hand over cash to the police.
But 86% said they would get involved in fighting corruption.
Akufo-Addo’s government has, by some accounts, not gotten off to a good start.
Last week, the president came out and said: “I am going to do my best to win the fight against corruption.”