Political parties angry with GII for labelling them as corrupt

The General Secretaries of political parties with representation in Parliament are in a rare case of unison, angry with the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) for daring to conduct a survey, a result of which suggests that political parties are corrupt.

The reps took turns and in the most vehement manner condemned the GII survey, which puts political parties as the second most corrupt institution, next to the Police Service.


General Secretary of the Convention People's Party, Ivor Greenstreet said the survey has the tendency of undermining public confidence in political parties.


Describing the parties as the "life blood" of the country's democracy, he said the GII survey can have a serious implication by creating "distrust, scepticism, [and also] undermine democracy and force a return to authoritarianism".


He feared the media will feed on the allegation against the political parties and further strain the relationship these parties have with the general public.


On his part, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the sins of individual party members cannot and should not be generalised to include the very institution they belong to.

He said for the GII to ask leading questions of respondents and come up with a conclusion that says political parties are corrupt is most unfortunate.


Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, General Secretary of the NPP who has a contempt charge hanging menacingly around his neck like an albatross, found time to condemn the survey.


He said political parties cannot be said to be corrupt.


He found it difficult to accept how anybody would describe political parties as corrupt when their only 'crime' was probably funding the transportation cost of delegates of the party.


Sir John said monies raised through party's own activities cannot be tainted with corruption.

His counterpart in the PNC was even more incensed with the survey.


Bernard Mornah who came to the studio of Joy FM said GII has no moral right to conduct surveys of such nature, much less, to proceed to brand political parties as corrupt.


He accused the GII of failing to disclose their donors for the activities they engage in.


He claimed the GII's survey is flawed because it erroneously portrayed all the parties as having been corrupt in government, a situation that cannot be the case because not all parties have been in government before.


Mornah said the PNC has filed all its audited accounts to the EC and that can be verified. So for anybody to conduct a survey labelling all parties as corrupt is hugely unacceptable.