Ghana’s partners withhold $600m over corruption – Bagbin

Ghana’s donor partners are withholding about $600 million dollars from the West African state until they see stronger commitment in the fight against corruption, Majority Leader Alban Bagbin has revealed.

Delivering a public lecture on the relationship between corruption and national development Thursday organised by the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies (FIDS) of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Wa campus in the Upper West region, the Nadowli-Kaleo MP said: “Our current score is 49 per cent, so they are waiting to see our next score before they release the funds.”

To him, “it is only the anger and revulsion of the public against corruption that would do the nation a great deal in the struggle to curb it.”

Mr Bagbin has also called for a decoupling of the Attorney General’s (AG) Department from the Ministry of Justice in order to reduce interference from the government in the work of the AG.

He said separating the two will ensure efficiency in the delivery of justice in the country, adding that the AG can only be efficient if divorced from the influence of the Executive.

Mr Bagbin called on Ghanaians to support the call for the separation of the two institutions in order to bring about efficiency into the country’s justice system.

He said the move is constitutional and not a political matter, which calls for a thorough public discussion and acceptance before it can be done during constitutional reforms.