BusinessGhana: Ghana: Friday,
January 27, 2017.
Ghana has
dropped two places in the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) to become
the 76th least corrupt country.
The
Transparency International (TI) 2016 report released in Accra said Ghana was
ranked 76 out of 176 countries included in the index.
It is the
lowest in Ghana’s CPI scores since 2012, when CPI scores became comparable.
Launch
The Ghana
Integrity Initiative (GII), the local Chapter of TI, launched the report on Joy
FM’s Super Morning Show.
“The Corruption Perception Index 2016 scored Ghana 43 points out of a possible
clean score of 100 and ranked the country 70 out of 176 countries included in
this year’s index,” a press release issued after the launch said.
It said the
CPI 2016 used nine out of the 13 data sources of independent institutions with
a high level of credibility to compute the index for Ghana.
The release
added that the sources and the corresponding scores included the World Bank
Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, African Development Bank,
Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation, World Economic Forum and World Justice
Project.
The rest were
the Economic Intelligence Unit, Political Risk Service International Country Risk
Guide, Varieties of Democracy and Global Insight.
The latest
report, therefore, indicates that Ghana’s performance has dropped by four
percentage points from its 2015 score of 47 points.
Recommendations
The GII
recommended a “deep-rooted systematic reform that would include empowering
citizens to stop the widespread impunity for corruption, hold the powerful to
account and have a say in the decisions that affect their daily lives.”
It also
called for commitment from political and institutional leadership to fight
corruption by strengthening anti-corruption legislation, passage of the Right
to Information (RTI) law and the Public Officers’ Code of Conduct.
The GII also
reminded the government of its promise to establish a Special Prosecutor’s
Office to facilitate the prosecution of alleged corrupt public officials.
Implementation
Later in an
interview, the Deputy Commissioner at the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Rev. Richard Quayson, said the implementation
of activities under the country’s anti-corruption plans would lay the
foundation for controlling corruption in the country.
He said
comprehensive measures, as contained in the National Anti-Corruption Action
Plan (NACAP) adopted by Members of Parliament in 2014, were needed to deal with
the canker.
“We need to
fight corruption comprehensively by effectively pursuing key activities under
the NACAP to lay a strong foundation for controlling corruption,” he said.
Mr Quayson
further stated that “currently, citizens feel that political office is a short
cut to making wealth, while politicians are not demonstrating their aversion to
the vice.”
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