The Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Professional Studies, Mr Ernest Kofi Abotsi has said that, the key root of corruption in Ghana is campaign financing.
He made this statement during a media interaction whiles assessing fight against corruption with regards to the elections as both presidential candidates will be running on their record.
“We are kidding ourselves if we think we can change corruption without changing the root of the corruption. And the key root of corruption in Ghana is campaign financing. A lot of people pay for campaigns and finance political parties and do these with a mindset of an investment. And as they invest, there is always an expectation of a return and unfortunately that has become the trend. Until that trend changes we are going to have a major problem.”
Speaking on what contributes to the challenge of corruption in the country, he said that, there are political realities and challenges that have confronted the fight against corruption for a long time.
“I have not seen any major changes that justify a higher degree of confidence as far as the dynamics are concerned moving to 2021. The political reality manifests in three key areas that need changes in order for us to make any impact or for us to achieve any transformative work on the current dynamic. We have to deal with the challenge of campaign financing.”
He further noted that, another problem is convoluted bureaucracy. He said that, “petty corruption mostly happens within a convoluted bureaucratic arrangement, where once rules are not clarified and once you have multiple layers of approval and authority, and a bureaucracy complicated to deal with, people are going to negotiate their way out of the difficulty.”
Mr. Abotsi also said that, the country has to deal with the cost benefit incentive analysis of corruption because “as long as corruption is or the act of corruption balances on the side of benefits, people are going to indulge in corruption.”
He suggested that, rules be simplified and the number of approving authority be reduced, to help minimize corruption.
Touching on what form of corruption is of biggest concern he said that it’s hard to estimate which one is bigger because of what the categories entail.
“We have what is called the grand corruption and we have what we call the petty corruption. The grand corruption happens as the name suggests on a grander scale mostly with the political and business class and the petty one can be categorized on largely amounts in terms of numbers.
“These are the types of corruption and it’s difficult to estimate which one is bigger or more impactful than the other because as indicated if you look at it from the larger picture perspective they probably have the same degree of impact in the country and economy as a whole.”
Mr. Bright Sowu, Head of Programmes and Deputy Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, describing the state of corruption in Ghana said that, the reduction of corruption in the country has not happened.
Also assessing the state of corruption in the country, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, an NDC representative and a lawyer said the fight against corruption has been lost.
“We have basically lost the fight, and we have lost the fight because the current leadership appears to be “corruption enabler” and regrettably the body language of our president whiles in opposition and his body language today, relative to the realities of corruption, has become a very terrible one. Infact, his body language has become diametrically opposed to the campaign promises that he made.”
