A Research Analyst at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Gilfred Asiamah, has revealed that corruption has a very damaging effect in terms of public trust and confidence in key institutions.

According to him, there is the need for government and other state institutions to address people’s perception about them in relation to corruption. He indicated that if the 2021 Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey report on corruption is not addressed in likewise people’s perception about some of these institutions, it may be “having damaging consequences on the way we govern and even on the way people accept our democracy”.

“I think corruption as has been explained over and over has a very damaging effect in terms of public trust and confidence in key institutions. And some of these institutions we’re talking about are the pillars of our democratic governance.”
Gilfred Asiamah

Mr Asiamah noted that even though the majority of Ghanaians still prefer democracy, there is generally dissatisfaction among people as their confidence in “democracy is running low [and] decreasing over time”.

“Some of these explains why people are not satisfied with the way democracy works, because they believe that people who have the opportunity to be at the helm of affairs tend to benefit more than they the ordinary people and that’s why you see these high levels of perception of corruption and low trust in these institutions.”
Gilfred Asiamah

Mr Asiamah thus called for training and retraining of public officials on ethical standards and levels of integrity. This, he explained will help officials be mindful of their roles as public officials and be conscious of promoting integrity as they offer their service to the citizenry.

Corruption is everywhere in Ghana

On his part, the Member of Parliament for Wa West, Peter Lanchene Toobu, expressed that the problem with Ghana is that everybody is corrupt and the only way to fully address corruption is by first admitting that Ghanaians are corrupt. He highlighted that it came as no surprise to him that the Police Service ranked as number one on the Corruption Perception Index.

Mr Toobu explained that the Police Service in every country represents the demeanour of the country. As such, whatever one finds in the Police Service is representative of the country.

“So, if you find a very corrupt police institution as painted by the research, it tells you that the country itself has a big problem, it is deeper than we can see. So that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Peter Lanchene Toobu

Nonetheless, Mr Toobu emphasized that the situation is worrying even with the position of the Office of the President on the Corruption Perception Index. He noted that the Presidency to be challenging the Police Service to take number one spot as the most corrupt institution in the country proves beyond doubt that corruption is ingrained in the country and addressing it might be more challenging than expected.

“Probably it is inbuilt [and] it is inbuilt in our culture. It is inbuilt in our institutions and the kind of lackadaisical attitude we have in our institutions.”
Peter Lanchene Toobu