Punish bribe takers, not givers - Prof Adei

A former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has called on government to change the country’s law on corruption in relation to taking and receiving of bribes.

In the current statutes, the bribe giver and receiver are both culpable, but Prof Adei is of the view that only the taker should be held guilty and punished according to law.

Speaking to Class News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson on the sidelines of the National Commission for Civic Education’s National Dialogue in Accra on Wednesday, 14 June, 2017, he said bribe givers should be used as conduit to fish out the takers.

“For me, the most important thing is that we should change our law about corruption. At this moment the one who gives the bribe and the one who receives the bribe are culpable. When you go to court, sometimes they say crown witness. Somebody is actually pardoned so that a bigger culprit can be identified. In the same way, I think from now we should make sure that people who receive the bribe are going to be the only ones who will be prosecuted,” he stated.

He admitted that although the giver was equally guilty of corruption “for the sake of the bigger goon, let’s say the mafia, and you get some small fry in it who is saying that: ‘I will tell you all that is going on’, you are prepared for the sake of the bigger one to let that one go, not because he’s not guilty. I think we should make certain people who are positioned to tell on the bribe givers at least not as culpable as the rest.”

According to Prof Adei, the bribe receivers, some of whom he identified as Ministers of State, civil servants, the police, among others, are the very people who are paid by the public to do that job for which they receive bribe, and, therefore, “we must change our rules”.