Fight against corruption is achievable - Mr Quayson

Mr Richard Quayson, the Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has said progress reports received since 2015 had shown that the fight against corruption in the country was achievable.

He said after the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) five years ago the number of institutions reported to have implemented their roles had moved from 19 to about 182 by 2018 with 101 out of 135 broad activities at various levels of implementation.

He said this in his report during a ceremony held in Accra to commemorate the International Anti-Corruption Day and climax the Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) week.

He said awareness of the evils of corruption and mechanism for reporting corrupt offenses which included whistle blowing had increased.

"Most institutions have or in the process of establishing safe corruption reporting mechanisms at the work place," he said.

He said all major revenue generation institutions had gone digital reducing the opportunities of corruption.

He said the enforcement of the code of conduct for public officers’ asset declaration regime, conflict of interest rule and the gift policy rolled out by the public Service Integrity Programme, (PSIP) has intensified the fight.

He said the Judicial Service's Electronic Case Distribution System had been extended to all superior and circuit courts to avert practices that encouraged corruption within the judiciary.

He said progress had equally been made with more institutions adopting sexual harassment policies, introduction of Integrity Awards, enforcement of relevant laws and the rise in investigative journalism and Media exposé.

Madam Diana Acconcia, European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana said the EU was interested in the fight against corruption in the country because corruption stifled the growth of the nation and that the EU was equally in support with the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda; to attract foreign investors, corruption could not be tolerated.

She said corruption was common to many nations and its eradication needed joint efforts of which the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted and EU and Ghana were part.