Founding Member of OccupyGhana, Lawyer Ace Ankomah is of the view that fighting corruption in the country is almost impossible as people in authority are not prepared to enforce the laws that fight corruption.
According to the Private Legal Practitioner and Law Lecturer, on paper, Ghana can be considered the strictest country in the world when Ghana’s Anti-corruption laws are read out, but in reality, the law has made corruption a misdemeanor which is considered the lowest grade of offenses.
Speaking on Oman Fm’s Morning Show, Lawyer Ace Ankomah stated that President Obama was not right when he said Africans don’t need strong men but strong institutions; insisting Ghana has some of the strongest laws in the country to fight corruption.
“Fighting corruption in the country is a joke because the law has made corruption a misdemeanor which does not attract heavy punishment; stealing a goat may attract harsher punishment than corruption and that is not the fault of the judge because corruption is just [a] misdemeanor and it is the lowest grade of offenses….that’s why I call it a joke; it will stop being a joke when the people who are enforcing the laws force them,” he stated.
“Do you know we have a law in this country that states if government official takes our money and he has money abroad, the law can order for the property to be confiscated and the offender will be imprisoned as well? There is also a law that if you give payment certificate to a contractor without checking for the completion of the contract, you and the contractor can be jailed for 10 years and again pay the money in three folds to government…another law states that any customs official who takes bribe and fails to collect the custom duty, the official will be charged to pay 200% and be sentenced to prison?” He revealed.
He however wondered why with the existence of all these Anti-corruption laws, the country is still suffering from corruption, insisting that there are no men to enforce the laws.
He further said that, OccupyGhana has started the initiative with the Auditor’s General’s Department, reminding the institution not to limit itself with only reporting the corrupt case but to charge the offenders to refund any embezzlement as the law demand.
