A political scientist at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, has revealed that the country is not ready to fight corruption despite it being of great concern.

According to him, problems associated with corruption have gone a long way to create “problems for us” and as a country, government is “refusing” to see it as such. Mr Asah-Asante explained that governments have always fought corruptions using “slogans [and] gestures” which do not mean anything.

His comments follow the results of a survey conducted by Transparency International (TI) which placed Ghana at 73rd out of 180 countries with a score of 43 out of a total of 100 on its Corruption Perception Index.

“The fight against corruption has been one that has been waged with difficulty since the birth of this republic. Government has made efforts to deal with it head-on and the stark reality is that they have not been able to find a way around corruption. It’s simply because we are not ready to fight corruption; because we know [the] means of addressing corruption [and] we know the sources of corruption, what are we doing with that?”
Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante

Mr Asah-Asante indicated that the issue of political party financing is a clear example where “corruption gets air” to the systems in the country. He emphasized that government has not taken the trouble to look at how to fund political party campaigns, leaving its funding to political parties which has paved way for all “manner of people” to fund such activities.

“… They are getting opportunity to come back for contracts with some very unclear way of handling some of these things. Look at countries such as America and all that. If you want to even go into political party financing as an individual, there’s a threshold which you cannot go beyond. If you go beyond that line, you are going to jail. A very simple matter.
Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante

Tackling corruption in Ghana

Commenting on the situation in Ghana, Mr Asah-Asante intimated that even if Ghana doesn’t have similar rules to that of the US, it can “borrow such nice experiences” and customize it for implementation.

“We are only refusing to fight corruption but we come up with slogans: we will protect public purse, fight corruption [and] zero tolerance for corruption. I think these are all words that will only go to sway voters to vote in a certain direction but the real fight against corruption, I’m afraid, we are not ready to fight it”.
Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante

Following the survey conducted by Transparency International, the office of the Special Prosecutor noted that, it regards the stagnant performance as “a stark reminder that corruption is and remains a serious and persistent problem”.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor further expressed its commitment to ensuring that corruption is nipped in the bud, which will, in the long run, improve the country’s ranking in the CPI.

“The OSP is committed to the task of making corruption and corruption-related activities costly enterprises. We can all make a difference by cooperating with and assisting the OSP to suppress and repress corruption”.
Office of Special Prosecutor