Wean yourselves from corruption tag - CDD to Parliamentarians

Centre for Democratic Development, (CDD)-Ghana has charged Ghana’s legislators to wean themselves from the corruption tag labelled against them by the citizenry.

Speaking at the 4th edition of the Crystal Ball series organized by PNAfrica and the CDD-Ghana, under the theme “Opening up Parliament for Effective Governance”, a Senior Programmes Officer at the CDD-Ghana, Mrs. Regina Tetteh reiterated that a recent research conducted by her outfit showed that about 50% of the Ghanaian populace “ think that parliamentarians are corrupt”.

“We have done loads of surveys (Afrobarometer); the citizens have this perception that Parliament is corrupt and that is dangerous for our democracy. We will urge and plead with the leadership of Parliament to take corruption allegations very seriously to let citizens have a positive attitude towards the house,” Mrs. Tetteh lamented.

She therefore cautioned members of the legislature to leave above reproach.

According to her, even though the legislative assembly has done very well to pass the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) bill into law, the SP’s effort and that of the House will come to nothing without the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Bill into an Act.

“Ghana as a nation is not going to succeed in its quest to eliminate corruption and corrupt practices if effective tool to checks corruption such as the RTI is not passed into an Act,” Madam Tetteh stressed.

Meanwhile, a Senior Research Fellow at CDD-Ghana, Ambassador Francis Tsegah has appealed to Parliament to summon the Attorney General and Minister of Justice as well as the Information Minister over the delay in the passage of the Right to Information Bill.

According to him, the people’s representatives must demand answers from Ms Gloria Akuffo and Mr Mustapha Abdul Hamid on reasons for the delay in the passage of the bill.

“It’s our expectation that Parliament as an institution will summon the Attorney General, the Information Minister to explain why the RTI bill is still with the executive”, Ambassador Tsegah said.