CDD: Govt must lead anti-graft war

The Government of Ghana must lead the fight against corruption, think tank Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has said.

In a statement released Wednesday December 9, to mark this year’s global International Anti-Corruption Day, CDD-Ghana said the theme, 'Breaking the Corruption Chain' enjoins governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organisations, as well as the media and citizens around the world to join forces to fight corruption.

"While acknowledging that the fight against corruption is a joint effort between state and non-state actors, CDD-Ghana, however, urges the government and official state anti-corruption bodies to lead the crusade against corruption in Ghana," the statement said.

"We do know that corruption costs nations economic resources, which could alternatively be channelled into improving the welfare of citizens.

"According to the 2015 facts and figures on corruption and development published by the UNDP and UNODC, corruption earns its actors about $1 trillion in bribes and an estimated $3 billion in untraceable transactions annually.

"It is also important to point out that corruption affects democratic governance and creates opportunities to undermine the rule of law and violate the basic human rights of citizens," CDD-Ghana added.

The Centre said: "In Ghana, citizens’ perception of corruption increased over the past year, as confirmed by the 2015 report on the Global Corruption Barometer released by Transparency International."

Similarly, it noted, "results from the 6th Round of the Afrobarometer survey (2014) suggest that most Ghanaians perceive the officials in government, law enforcement and the judiciary as corrupt."

It said: "In addition, a majority of citizens also feel that informal leaders such as business, traditional and religious leaders are corrupt. Nevertheless, there is still hope as findings from the Afrobarometer survey (2014) also suggests that more than 50% of respondents believed that citizens can help in the fight against corruption."

"In order to ‘break the corruption chain,’ CDD-Ghana urges strong governmental leadership in the fight against corruption, and also calls on official government anti-corruption agencies to lead the fight against corruption in order to set a good precedence for the tolerance of no corruption.

"CDD-Ghana considers this year’s theme apt and calls on the Government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and citizens as a whole to join forces in uprooting corruption. This will help ensure judicious use of economic resources in Ghana. This will also contribute to improving the welfare of citizens of the country," the statement added.