NCCE survey identifies bribery, favouritism as main forms of corruption

Ghanaians have identified bribery, favouritism and fraud as the main form of corruption in the country a survey conducted by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) under the Accountability, Rule of law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) has established.

The survey, which focused on citizens’ awareness and knowledge of corruption, its causes and effect in Ghana established that corruption was endemic.

The NCCE as part of its civic education engagements has since 2017 been involved in numerous education programmes aimed at supporting Ghana’s anti-corruption and public accountability drive.

The Survey report made available to the Ghana News Agency at Tema on Friday captured a sampled size of 4,220 Ghanaians between 20 to 29 years. The survey used purposive, systematic, and simple random sampling techniques, from 108 districts, On the level of corruption, both studies-a baseline in 2017 and an end-line survey in 2020, established that corruption was high.

Majority of the baseline study respondents representing 91.4 per cent also ranked the level of corruption as high compared with 86.8 per cent in the end-line.

According to the NCCE survey, 84 per cent, majority of the end-line study respondents, believed that corruption was inherent in nature and was often manifested by greed and selfishness, desire to get rich quickly and satisfaction of a dire need.

The respondent opined that corruption could also come about due to peer, family, and societal pressure, the anticipation of gifts, and rewards for services rendered, economic hardship and poor remuneration at workplaces.

In both studies, bribery for service delivery in state institutions remained a key determinant of the level of corruption in the country.

The 2020 survey presented an assessment of the outcomes of the public education and civic engagement activities carried out by the Commission under ARAP, whose results were compared with the baseline data to help gauge the impact of education activities undertaken by the Commission.

It said, majority of the baseline study respondents’ perceived embezzlement - stealing from resources meant for the common good-as a form of corruption, while acts of corruption were mainly in the form of bribery representing 53 per cent, fraud 11.7 per cent, favouritism 10.8 per cent.

Extortion represented 7.7 per cent while paying administration charges represented 7.6 per cent, embezzlement 6.3 per cent and conflict of interest 2.5 per cent.

The ARAP is an initiative that began in 2016 intending to promote good governance and support national reforms to enhance accountability and strengthen anti-corruption efforts across the country.

The programme was instituted through an agreement between the European Union Delegation and the Government of Ghana in partnership with strategic national stakeholders including the NCCE.