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"We
need national will to fight corruption" – Attorney-General
Accra, June 10, Ghanadot/GNA - The Attorney-General and
Minister of Justice, Joe Ghartey, on Tuesday called for
national will to fight corruption.
He said national commitment was paramount in any
anti-corruption strategy because though political will was
important, it was but a sub-set of national will.
Mr Ghartey, who took his turn at the meet-the-press series
in Accra, said the government had recognized the negative
effects of corruption on development and had therefore put
in measures to fight it.
He mentioned the domestic preventive, the domestic curative
and international strategies as a comprehensive strategy
adopted by government to curb the social menace.
The Minister said early warning system of mechanisms and
institutions that enabled early detection was also very
important in a preventive anti-corruption system.
"It is a fact of life that corruption can be prosecuted only
after the facts are available, and prosecutions are
time-consuming, costly, uncertain and can only be brought
when evidence of corrupt conduct is available," he added.
Mr. Patrick Nomo, Director-General, Internal Audit Agency,
said the focus of the agency, since its inception, had been
to build a professional internal auditing system in the
public service to ensure that fraudulent and corrupt
practices were deterred or prevented as much as possible.
"If they occur there are clear procedures for identifying
and reporting fraud and corrupt practices for necessary
actions. In all these, we are always careful to protect the
identity of internal audit staff whose work results in
identification of fraud and corrupt practices."
He said the agency believed that the national will would be
better served that way than placing internal audit in a
reactive mode chasing documents, fraudsters and corrupt
officials after they had committed the crime.
"We believe continuous improvements in deterrent and
preventive systems coupled with timely detection and
prosecution is the sure way to win the fight against fraud
and corruption."
Mr Nomo said the Agency had made substantial progress in
gaining root in the public service of Ghana and although
those systems would not necessarily eliminate all
appearances of fraud and corruption, they would go a long
way to minimize them and give a clear signal to potential
perpetrators.
Mr Agyenim Boateng Adjei, Chief Executive, Public
Procurement Authority, said 80 per cent of national tax
revenue went into public procurement indicating government's
commitment in providing social amenities.
He said the Procurement Act was a form of preventive
mechanism that helped check corruption and that it had
helped abolish sole sourcing in acquiring national assets.
Mr Christian Sotti, Controller and Accountant General, said
the checks and balances in the operation of the Department
had been improved, leading to the arrest and prosecution of
some 13 workers.
He said the Financial Administration Act, which had been
adapted into the Public Sector Account, was also helping to
address corrupt practices.
GNA
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