Fighting corruption will be my first concern - President-elect John Mahama

John Dramani Mahama, Ghana's president-elect, has reaffirmed his pledge to fight corruption and reduce waste in the public sector in order to advance the nation's economic goal.

Mahama emphasized his administration's intention to enact radical changes to governance structures, strengthen anti-corruption frameworks, and enforce stringent accountability inside public institutions in an interview with Germany's DW TV.

The president-elect admitted that the public's dissatisfaction with Ghana's growing national debt, ineffective governance, and poor use of public resources was widespread.

Mahama signaled a clear turn towards openness and budgetary restraint in his government by pledging to implement constitutional reforms and impose harsh punishments on those engaged in corrupt practices, seeing corruption and waste as major roadblocks to progress.

“And one of the first things we will do would be to take the whole issue of constitutional review again and see how we can structure things so that we have a more dynamic constitution going forward. Aside from that, we need to take the fight against corruption and waste to a new level.

“And so how do we improve our governance system so that we are not having so much waste as a result of corruption and waste? So that is something that we need to look at to ensure our economic managers can manage it in such a way that we don’t end up where we have found ourselves at this time in terms of debt management.”

He underscored the importance of aligning constitutional reforms with Ghana’s current realities, particularly by incorporating mechanisms that promote accountability and exact punitive consequences on individuals who abuse their public positions for personal gain.