Efforts to fight corruption not enough – Kwesi Prempeh

Ghana has not put in much efforts to fight against corruption in the country, Professor H Kwesi Prempeh Executive Director at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has said.

He explained that although some steps have been taken to deal with graft however, generally speaking, there has not been enough commitment and action taken by authorities to deal with the issue.

“I think that one can see that over time, we haven’t really made a big enough dent in the fight against corruption as a country, generally speaking, and when also you look at the manifesto, it is there,” he said during the Ghana National Forum on Political Party Manifesto, organized by Media General in partnership with Penplusbytes on Wednesday, October 14.

He added that “When you talk about corruption, the political class gets defensive, so they say ‘show me the evidence’.”

Regarding whether or not political p-arties’ manifesto help in the fight against corruption, Professor Prempeh noted that they actually do.

He explained that the documents give voters and the general public a fair idea of which of the political parties take the issue of corruption seriously especially ahead of major elections.

“When you look at the manifesto as to whether manifesto matter at all when it comes to corruption, I think the answer to that ought to be yes. Manifestos do matter.

“It appears that the parties themselves recognize that manifestos matter.

“NPP in opposition 2016 trying to get in promises a whole lot more than the NDC does and that it is consistent with what we see, that there is a tendency on the part of challengers to raise the profile on corruption issues during election campaigns as a way to signal that they would do better if elected to office.“

Sharing his perspectives on this topic, team leader at the Department for International Development (DFID) and Strengthening Action Against Corruption (STAAC) Howard Tucker told Ghanaian politicians ahead of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections that they cannot just make promises to fight corruption for votes and go to sleep after winning.

He said Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will hold politicians accountability on their plans to fight corruption and ensure that they implement those plans.

“Politicians must understand that they can no longer use corruption as a tool to win electoral votes.

“The citizens of Ghana and the CSOs will hold you to your promises and maintain pressure on government to ensure that they fulfil their promises.”