Ghana’s corruption index performance not as bad – Deputy Information Minister

Ghana making sturdy progress on corruption index, Fatimatu Abubakari

It is good Ghana did not drop on CPI, Fatimatu Abubakari

Government measures to curb corruption would yield results

The Deputy Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, has indicated that Ghana’s performance on the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is not as bad as it is being portrayed.

According to the deputy minister, Ghana has been making progress on the index since 2017 when it scored 40 out of 100 on the CPI.

In an interview on Asaase News, Fatimatu Abubakar said that although the progress made was small, Ghana has not performed badly either.

“But let us establish the fact that what this government inherited in 2017 was an average of 40, and the measurement is such that the lower you score, the more corrupt you are… so if you look at the trends from 2017, you will realise that no matter how small the figure is, Ghana has been stepping up, from 2017 to 2018 we were up from 40 to 41 and then in 2020 we moved a notch higher,” she said.

She also said that although Ghana scored 43 on the CPI, which is the same as last year’s score, it should be appreciated that the country did not drop.

“In 2021, we didn’t record any point but it has to be also appreciated that we haven’t lost a point, so if you look at the trends or you draw a bar chart, there will be an appreciation that government’s effort even if it is not going up ought to reduce our score on the global corruption perception index,” she said.

She added that the government's efforts at fighting corrupting, including digitalisation, would soon yield results and improve the country’s CPI.

“And it is because of the investment that the government has made and continues to make in the area of digitalisation and actually assisting institutions to help with the fight in terms of disbursement of funds, in terms of support that government gives to the Office of Special Prosecutor, the Auditor General office and other institutions,” she said.