Corruption: Individuals must play their part - Sapati

Accra, July 17, GNA - Mr Brian Sapati, an anti-corruption advocate, on Tuesday said although there had been so much talk about corruption, individuals were doing little at their own levels to help to curb the canker.

According to him, the crusade in the fight against corruption would only succeed when individuals positively backed their words with action.

Mr Sapati was speaking at a workshop organized by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition for delegates of Jubilee Netherlands, a coalition of 45 non-governmental organizations campaigning for debt relief.

The group is in the country to learn at first hand about the state of corruption and good governance in Ghana, the role of the media in the fight against corruption and to understand the effects of corruption on the campaign for debt relief.

Mr Sapati, who spoke on: "Fighting Corruption in the Public Sector, the Challenges", said what was needed at this stage of the corruption agenda was individuals, who were ready to disapprove of corrupt acts and a youth, who could express honest dissent when they saw their elders and colleagues engaged in corrupt activities, whether petty or grand.

He said corruption heightened poverty and inequality and led to misallocation of resources.

It is in this direction that those campaigning for debt relief would want to be sure that the gains to be made thereafter were used to reduce poverty and create wealth for all.

Mr Sapati, Former Acting Director of Serious Fraud Office (SFO), said the Government was doing all it could to drive the agenda through the establishment of the Office of Accountability in the Office of the President as an internal mechanism to check corruption as well as through the passage of the Public Procurement Act and the Internal Audit Agency Act.

Despite these efforts there were still the challenges of ensuring that resources reached the poor, and there was funding and enhancement of the capacity of anti-corruption agencies such as the SFO and the Commission on Human Rights and Admnistrative Justice, he said.

In addition, efforts must be geared towards non-interference in corruption cases, proactive investigation and prosecution of cases and above all a trusted Judiciary.

Mr Sapati said the challenges were surmountable if individuals were ready to act wherever they found themselves.

He underscored the importance of the Whistleblower Bill but said the Freedom of Information Bill should be passed to make the empowerment complete.

Mr Sapati said the campaign for debt relief/reduction was good if the beneficiaries of the relief/reduction would be the poor.

Mr Bright Blewu, General Secretary of Ghana Journalist Association, said the media's hand had been strengthened by the Constitution to hold government accountable through exposing corrupt acts and practices to the people.

He said the media's role was crucial because the people could only make corruption less attractive if good governance, openness, transparency and free expression were insisted upon in the society.

"There is no tool or institution better placed than the media to ensure this. There is no time in Ghana's history that corruption has been discussed more openly than now," he said.

However, Mr Blewu said, a free press was not a sufficient condition to enable the media to be an effective watchdog. There must be laws in place that enabled the public to have maximum freedom of access to public information, and there must be laws that discouraged people from engaging in corruption that were seen to be enforced.

H said he was sure that with the passage the Whistle Blowers Law and Freedom of Information Law the accuracy and efficiency of the media in the campaign to set the agenda more effectively would be enhanced. Miss Roos Visser, leader of the delegation, said the

understanding of the situation in Ghana would enable them to

influence the young people in the Netherlands to accept the

campaign that debt relief/reduction was an effective way to fight

poverty.