Atwima-Nwabiagya District: Judicial Service tops corruption list - GII

The Judicial Service has been ranked the most corrupt public institution in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District by the people in the area.

Fifty-six percent of respondents of a survey conducted by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) Consortium, grouping the GII, Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and SEND Ghana, said the service was corrupt.

The survey is part of the four-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project – Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening (ADISS) being implemented in 50 districts across the nation.

ADISS seeks to renew and build upon on-going efforts and also increase the capacity of anti-corruption civil society organizations (CSOs) to motivate citizens to apply pressure on policymakers and institutions through a number of targeted and focused actions with the aim to reduce corruption.

Speaking at a forum held to at Nkawie, the district capital to discuss the findings of the survey, Samuel Harrison-Cudjoe, Research Officer of the GACC, said the people mentioned the police, media, political parties, education and health institutions as also corrupt.

The survey, he indicated, was conducted between April and May, 2016, and the views of 445 people were sampled.

The meeting brought together heads of decentralised department of the district assembly, religious and traditional leaders, the security agencies, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and assembly members.

Mr. Harrison-Cudjoe said the goal was to find out people’s understanding of corruption, citizens’ assessment of corruption in their district and to know how and where they experienced corruption.

He noted that the citizens’ had a fair knowledge of what corruption was and said he found it refreshing that about 99 percent of them was ready to fight it.

He underlined the need to give strong support and to adequately resource public institutions mandated to check corruption.

He encouraged everybody to be bold to publicly expose those, who engaged in corrupt practices.