Citizens urged to resist, reject and report corrupt practices

As part of the nationwide campaign by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to promote transparency, accountability and adherence to the rule of law, the Adentan municipal directorate held a community durbar on the topic “Whistle Blowers Mechanism & Anti-corruption: The Role of the Citizenry”.

The durbar took place on Saturday, 28 October, 2019 at the premises of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in the Ashiyie community at 10:00am.

In her welcome remarks, the Adentan Municipal Director of NCCE, Mrs. Sylvia Osei-Bonsu, said as citizens we have a duty to honour Article 41(f) which mandates every Ghanaian to protect and preserve public property, and expose and combat misuse and waste of public resources.

She pointed that the durbar seeks to enlighten citizens on the how, where and whom to turn to in order to report corrupt practices in the fight against corruption and promotion of sustainable national development and progress. “The NCCE therefore aims to equip citizens with the right information to Resist, Reject and Report corrupt practices to the appropriate authorities”, she added.

The resource person for the durbar, Mr. Godfrey Ebo Arhin, a Senior Investigator from CHRAJ, delivered the keynote address on the topic.

Mr. Arhin started his delivery by pointing out that Whistle Blowing was an act of drawing attention of people and the authority to acts of corruption, or sounding an alarm in an attempt to reveal abuse or neglect in the interest of the public, whiles Corruption on the other hand is the abuse or misuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption involved embezzlement of funds, bribery, stealing, smuggling, breaking the law amongst others, he mentioned. Corruption impedes development and democracy, and prevents institutions and laid down rules and procedures from working properly, he added. Mr. Arhin explained further, the whistle blowers act as Act 720 passed in 2006 to create an avenue for individuals to report corrupt practices. Highlighting that it also involves the creation of funds to compensate the whistle blower and provides protection to him or her.

He listed out issues that the citizenry or individual can blow whistle about to include economic crime, law-breaking, discourage of justice, and misappropriation of public resources, and acts of environmental degradation.

Places designated to blow the Whistle, processes involved in whistle blowing, and actions to be taken by a victimized whistle blower were issues he touched on as well, leading to an open forum session where questions raised were answered during interactions.

In her short speech, the Honorable Assembly member for Koose electoral area, Hon. Patience Manko Tetteh, advised participants to resist, reject and report corrupt and wrong practices in the community to their Assembly member, Unit Committee members and Traditional Authority to reduce corruption and promote development, discipline and order starting from the grassroots.

The Chairman for the Community Durbar, Mr. Joseph Odoi Anang from the Ashiyie Traditional Authority, gave his closing remarks stating that because we as citizens are not happy about corruption we need to learn from our cultural, religious and moral values for a change of our mindset and heart to portray the right attitude towards money. These he said are how we can resist temptations to be corrupt. Government alone cannot succeed but this requires the effort of all Ghanaians, he added.

Mr. Anang asked parents and adults to train and teach children to resist, reject and report any form of corruption starting from our homes and communities.

He concluded by expressing his gratitude to all stakeholders for their support and participation that has enabled the NCCE organized such an important durbar to educate citizens in the fight against corruption.

The MC, Mr. Alexander Owusu Siaw, intermittently acknowledged the support of the European Union (EU) in organizing the durbar.