Corruption findings on the Police not about you - Adib Saani tackles IGP

Foreign Policy and Security Analyst, Adib Saani, has berated the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, for his criticism of a recent study that has rated the Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt institution in Ghana.

According to Saani, rather than criticising the surveys, the IGP should recognise the issues they raised and strive to help find solutions to them, 3news.com reports.

He added that the issue of corruption in the Police Service is a national issue that every citizen including Dr. Dampare should be worried about.

“I think it’s important the IGP realises one thing … this is not about him. He is the IGP alright but he should understand that the issues in the Police Service is bigger than him. It is structural. It is systemic,” the security analyst is quoted to have said on TV3‘s Ghana Tonight.

He added that: “I would have, as a professional communicator myself, issued a statement and taken it in giant strides and assured the general population that work is in progress to at least mitigate it to some extent. It is not something you can completely deal with or completely nip in the bud hook, line and sinker.”

The Inspector General of Police, COP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, IGP, penned down a 5-page response to a report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and its partners, which placed the Ghana Police Service at the top of the institutions that take the most bribes.

According to him, the service did not seem satisfied with the report findings as well as the research methodology.

“We want to place on record that we are concerned about this since the continuous empirically and scientifically unsubstantiated labelling of the Police as the most corrupt institution in the country only goes to feed this perception and damage the reputation of the Police Service as well as weaken the morale of its personnel.

“As we have all now come to accept, perception tends to be more powerful than reality, and therefore we have no choice than to share our position on this matter,” Dr. Dampare noted.

Two recent reports by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) indicated that the Police Service is perceived as the most corrupt institution in Ghana.

The study by the GSS showed that more than 17.4 million bribes were paid in 2021 with Police officers topping the list of officials who take bribes at 53.2%.

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