Unreported corruption deepens poverty – Citizens told

Failure to report public officials who engage in corruption amounts to the act of deepening poverty among the poor in the country.

Citizens have therefore been encouraged to be bold and report corrupt public officials to appropriate anti-corruption bodies for investigation and prosecution.

Mr Modestus Dangah, the Sissala East Municipal Director of the National Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said this during a community anti-corruption durbar at Kandia in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.

He assured citizens of adequate protection under the Whistle-Blowers Act, adding that citizen’s detestation of corruption was the most effective way to curb corruption in society.

“Where it becomes necessary for CHRAJ to provide security for a whistleblower, the Commission will not hesitate to do so”, he said.

Mr Hussein Elyasu, the Sissala West District Director of NCCE said corruption was a threat to democracy, hence the need for citizens to support anti-corruption agencies with information for the appropriate action.

Mr. Elyasu noted that it could be avoided if all citizens showed their love and patriotism by exposing all manner of corrupt practices beginning at the community level.

Mr Elyasu also told the people to protect the environment by avoiding open defecation, proper disposal of waste, and indiscriminate felling of trees for timber and charcoal production.

Some participants raised complaints about smuggling of government-subsidized fertilizer to Burkina Faso, illegal harvesting of rosewood.

The NCCE public sensitisation on corruption is part of the implementation of a project dubbed “Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) which is being funded by the European Union (EU).