Corruption impedes Ghana’s socio-economic development

Corruption impedes Ghana’s socio-economic development
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

Accra, June 4, Ghanadot - The Ghana Integrity International (GII), a local chapter of the Transparency International (TI) has observed that corruption impedes the socio-economic development of the country.

According to GII, corruption has devastating effects not only on the individual citizens but also on the country.

Launching this year’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) in Accra yesterday, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Integrity International, Mr. Vitus Azeem added that the lack of access to quality health care, quality education for our children and potable water result from corruption and the poor are always the hardest hit.

The Transparency International released its Global Corruption Barometer in Berlin, Germany and it had been launched simultaneously yesterday in all the countries covered by the report.

The GCB 2009 surveyed a total of 73,132 people in 69 countries and territories around the world, including ten African countries, namely: Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, and Morocco. Others are Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.

The GCB 2009 disclosed that consumers are willing to pay more for products and services from corrupt-free companies and views of the private sector are negative, providing an incentive for companies to prove they are clean.

The report further revealed that petty bribery is on the rise in some countries which further compounds challenges faced in the economic downturn meaning cash-strapped families are increasingly suffer the brunt.

People continue to see political parties as the most corrupt institutions in their country. But some people continue to broadly see government as ineffective in the fight against corruption.

The Ghana Integrity Initiative conducted the survey in Ghana on behalf of the Transparency International in which a total of 1,190 respondents were randomly selected from one Municipal capital and one District capital from each of the ten regions of the country and interviewed.

The aim was to cover all categories of the Ghanaian society, including representatives of both urban and rural communities.

The survey respondents were asked to rank six institutions/sectors on their perception of how corrupt they are on a scale of one to five with five being very corrupt.

It was found out that the public officials/civil servants, judiciary and political parties were more corrupt scoring 4.2, 4.1 and 3.6 respectively.

While, the business/private, parliament and media were regarded as much corrupt, making 3.3, 3.1 and 3.0 as scores.

However, overall, the public officials/civil service were perceived to be the most corrupt institutions in Ghana.

In Ghana, 58% of the respondents felt that government efforts to fight corruption were quite effective. This is lower than what pertained in 2007 where 67% of the respondents felt the same. It is therefore worrying when citizens lose confidence in their government’s ability to fight a canker like corruption.

The GII called for more civic education to educate and sensitize Ghanaians on the deleterious effects of corruption.

Ghanaians must also learn to be loyal to the state rather than to friends, relatives and members of their ethnic groups. This the GII called for a change of attitude and a system of democratic practice where all citizens are equal before the law and where meritocracy rules over and above all other considerations.

The anti-corruption organization urged the private sector in Ghana to adhere to the United Nations Global Compact-Principle 10, which says that “Business should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery”.

It further urged the private secto to sign on to the Ghana Business Code, where companies will have detailed policies with respect to bribery-related issues such as kickbacks, conflict of interest, fraud and gifts.

Ghanadot