IEA has serious credibility issues - NDC communicator

A member of the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) communications team, Koku Mawuli Nenegbe has said that the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is in credibility crisis.

The outspoken communicator of the ruling government said the institution is not a credible enough to say corruption is deep rooted in the DNA of Ghanaians.

A survey recently released by the institution revealed Ghanaians do not think corruption could be eradicated in the country and that, the canker has become part and parcel of the Ghanaian society.

The survey, which sampled 1,500 people from all parts of the country, quoted 24% of them as saying that corruption is in the DNA of Ghanaians.

Speaking at a forum to discuss the findings, Professor Joseph Atsu-Ayee, Adjunct Senior Fellow at IEA said out of the 1,500 respondents, 60% and 40% were females and males respectively.

While 44% of the respondents said corruption could be reduced to a certain level, 19% argued that it could be substantially reduced, whereas 4.7% believed it could be eradicated completely.

Corruption the fellow said attracts attention because of its debilitating and corrosive effects on politics, governance, economy, society and security.

But responding to the release by the IEA, Koku Mawuli Nenegbe in an interview with Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM said, ''the IEA as an institution has questions to answer, including credibility issues.''

According to him, the institute do not have the moral right to talk about corruption when they themselves are corrupt.

Quoting Dr. Baffour Agyemang Duah a former fellow of the IEA, he said the Senior Governance Adviser resigned from the IEA because he felt the institution was not standing for the lofty ideals.

According to him, the former IEA fellow in his book, 'My Ghanaian Oddessy', "In 1998 I resigned my position at the IEA. Although the institute stood fro lofty national ideals and principles, these were not matched with best institutional practices , as I discovered to my chagrin. I had great difficulty reconciling myself with the management's underhanded dealings. I could not fit into the mode."

He said with such a remarkable statement coming from a former fellow of the institution over the credibility crisis of the institution, it raises a lot of issues over the policy Think Tank.

The mission of the IEA is to promote good governance, democracy and a free and fair market economy. We believe that the creation of an environment in which economic, social, political and legal institutions function openly and freely is the key to sustainable economic growth and human development.

But Nenegbe believes the institution is far from that mission and rather em-belled in activities that can best be described as corruption.

Mawuli Nenegbe went on to quote Dr. Duah who in the same book alleged that, the institute had to pay an amount of 1, 000 dollars for them to see the then Speaker of Parliament Mr. Justice Daniel Francis Annan, and to also win contracts. This he added, was done together with the Executive Director, Jean Mensah and Dr. Duah as captured in his book.

He shot down claims that he was demonizing the IEA for his political gains, stressing that he is only speaking, nothing but the truth.

The NDC communicator said he was extremely shocked after he read the book and came to the conclusion that, the IEA cannot and should not discuss issues on corruption.

"An institution like that should not be the one to organize debates and encounters for political parties in this country...They are not as clean as we are seeing. It is a former fellow from the IEA making these claims, I'm not the one doing so."