The Executive Secretary of Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition (GACC), Beauty Emefa Narteh, has indicated that there’s a need to draw the President’s attention to the frightening rise in corruption.
According to her, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition meeting with the President was arranged purposely to discuss the threats that corruption pose to Ghana’s development objectives.
“Our motivation to meet with the President stemmed from our concerns and evidence from our work on the ground. Because we believe that the fight against corruption should be the concern of every Ghanaian. And looking at the data, we realized that there is the need to draw the President’s attention so that the necessary measures will be urgently taken. The forum that the president provided was a forum for a candid dialogue, especially given the creeping normalization of corruption that becomes a threat to our development aspiration especially the President’s agenda of moving Ghana beyond aid. So, that was why we met with the President to reflect the data that is not speaking so well about the state of Ghana’s fight against corruption and also elicit his support in terms of addressing them.”
Beauty Enefa Narteh
During an interview on an Accra based TV station, Ms. Narteh highlighted some of the issues that the GACC raised.
Firstly, the GACC spelt out their concern on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International. The Executive Secretary of GACC indicated that over a period of 10 years, Ghana has not been able to meet the average CPI mark. She further indicated that, Ghana scored its highest CPI mark of 48 in 2014.
However, the lowest Corruption Perception Index of 40 was recorded in 2017. Ms. Beauty Narteh further revealed that Ghana has not been able to sustain earlier CPI gains representing stagnation in Ghana’s fight against corruption.
That notwithstanding, the Executive Secretary of GACC revealed that the Afrobarometer also revealed that the citizens approval ratings for government anti-corruption efforts declined sharply in 2017. That same period, Ghana’s Corruption Perception Index recorded its lowest.
Ms. Narteh mentioned that the President talked about investments that he has undertaken as an effort to fight against corruption.
According to her, “our worry is that if we are putting in a lot of resources and the data we have is not consistent with the resources being pushed into the fight against, corruption then every Ghanaian should be worried”.
The Executive Secretary of GACC further questioned whether the resources are put into work effectively.
She also raised concerns about whether the strategies employed in the resource provision are in line with the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACAP) which is Ghana’s 10-year anti-corruption plan adopted in 2014.
“Are we implementing it as the NACAP suggested? If not, why? And if yes, why are we not getting the needed results?”
Beauty Enefa Narteh
Ms. Beauty indicated that responses to these questions will enable them to find out the shortcomings and then re-strategize.
Speaking on President Akuffo-Addo’s response to information presented to him by Civil Society Organization (CSO), Ms. Beauty Emefa Narteh was of the view that the President’s recent reaction to the CSOs is a defensive one. However, she believed that the President will analyze the data in good faith.
Successive-governments think CSOs work against them
According the Ms. Beauty Narteh, governments think Civil Society Organizations do things that may not be in their favor.
President Akuffo-Addo recently stated that, “there are Civil Society Organizations that mounted campaigns to make sure that I did not continue to sit in this seat, and I believe a lot of objective people will appreciate the point that I make”.
However, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition mentioned that when parties tend to be in opposition, they end up using the same information that Civil Society Organizations provide, for their campaign to gain political advantage.
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