Our chiefs, pastors are corrupt – Report

The perception that corruption is associated with public office holders appears to be fading away, with fingers now being pointed at chiefs, who are the custodians of our tradition and culture, as well as religious leaders, especially pastors, an Afrobarometer survey has revealed.

According to the survey, which sought to collect public views on issues affecting society to help derive policy direction, 80 percent of the public hold the view that our chiefs and pastors have been affected by this corruption canker.

This survey shows that our traditional rulers are corrupt because they have departed from their original role as protectors of our customs and traditions and are now selling lands, which are supposed to be held in trust for the present and unborn generation.

To this end, some people have lost confidence in our traditional rulers, because some of them had been blamed for the destruction of our forest reserves, water bodies and farmlands.

Daniel Armah-Attoh, Project Manager for Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Anglophone, revealed this in Accra yesterday, when he presented the findings on the Afrobarometer round 7 surveys in Ghana. The survey was conducted from September 9th-25th, 2017.

The survey findings, which was in two folds (private & public) ranked chiefs to be the most perceived corrupt people in the informal/private sector with 80 percent.

Next on the ranking were business executives with 78%, public media practitioners 77%, private media persons 77%, religious leaders 74% and non-governmental organization, 68%.

On the public sector, the police maintained its position by coming first with 92% followed by the judges and magistrates with 88%, national government officials were ranked 3rd at 86%, Members of Parliament had 85% and local government representatives 83%.

Other public office holders ranked under the survey are District Chief Executives 82%, officials of Electoral Commission 80% and President and officials in his office 78%.