The 2024 edition of the State of Corruption Report, released by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), paints a troubling picture of Ghana’s ongoing battle against corruption.
Drawing heavily on findings from the Afrobarometer survey, the report reflects the sentiments of ordinary Ghanaians, who overwhelmingly perceive a deterioration in both the prevalence of corruption and the effectiveness of the fight against it.
According to the report, well-structured public surveys like Afrobarometer offer valuable insights into citizen perceptions, serving as barometers of democratic health and institutional integrity.
“In 2024, citizens had the opportunity to share their views in surveys, the results of which show clearly a lack of progress in the fight against corruption. The Afrobarometer survey is an important source for gauging the pulse of citizens for two reasons. First, the coverage in terms of length and breadth of the survey since its inception in 1999.
“The survey questions cover the democratic architecture of participating countries in a very comprehensive way, with questions focused on corruption. Second, the time horizon allows any landscape analysis of democracy to capture trends over time and the extent to which democratic governance has improved or not since the transition”
Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) 2024 State of Corruption Report
Ghana has participated in ten rounds of the survey, with the latest in 2024 capturing perhaps one of the most pessimistic outlooks on corruption yet recorded.
One of the most alarming revelations from the 2024 survey is the sharp rise in the public perception of institutional corruption. Using 2005 as a baseline, the report highlights a marked increase in the percentage of Ghanaians who believe that key officeholders are deeply entrenched in corrupt practices.
In 2005, only 16% of respondents believed that the President and officials in his office were involved in corruption. By 2024, that figure had spiked to 54%.
Members of Parliament followed a similar trajectory, with the same 16% baseline rising to 51% in 2024. This stark deterioration reflects growing disillusionment with political leadership and raises serious concerns about public trust in democratic institutions.
Other institutions did not fare any better. The police, already perceived as the most corrupt in 2005 at 52%, saw that figure climb to 63% in 2024. Similarly, perceptions of corruption among tax officials rose from 34% to 53%, and among judges and magistrates from 38% to 44%.
Even local-level officials like assembly members, once relatively shielded from such accusations, are now seen through a sceptical lens, with perceptions of corruption rising from 19% to 38%.
Corruption on Nationwide Rise
Beyond perceptions of individual institutions, the report also documents a broader sentiment: that corruption is on the rise nationwide.
According to the report, the majority of Ghanaians in 2024 indicated that corruption had “increased a lot”—a sentiment reminiscent of 2014, effectively wiping away gains in public confidence that had been observed in the 2017 survey.
This regression underscores the feeling among citizens that efforts to combat corruption have stagnated or, worse, lost momentum. A particularly distressing trend is the growing fear among citizens regarding the personal consequences of speaking out against corruption.
In 2017, the gap between those who believed they could report corruption without fear and those who feared retaliation stood at 26%. By 2024, that gap had widened to 46%, nearly doubling in seven years.
This indicates not only a lack of faith in whistleblower protections but also a chilling effect on civic participation and watchdog activities.
Additionally, the report noted that citizen confidence appears to have reached a new low, with a percentage of respondents rating the government’s performance as “fairly well” or “very well” being among the lowest ever recorded in Ghana’s Afrobarometer history.
This lack of confidence, according to the report, suggests that rhetoric alone is no longer sufficient; Ghanaians are demanding visible and measurable action.
Urgent Recommendations
In response to these troubling trends, the GACC outlined a series of urgent recommendations. For state actors, the report called for the establishment of a centralised corruption database to improve access to information and accountability.
It also urged enhanced administrative and regulatory action by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the adoption of technology to streamline case management and investigations, and a long-overdue review and passage of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers Bill.
Additionally, reforms to the Internal Audit Agency Act were recommended to place all internal auditors under a centralised authority, ensuring greater independence and oversight.
For non-state actors, the report advocated for intensified advocacy for legislation on political party and campaign finance, an area long viewed as a root cause of corruption.
It also called for the creation of a private fund to support journalists who face legal, physical, or other forms of intimidation while investigating corruption, recognising the indispensable role of the media in holding power to account.
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