Accra, Dec. 4, - Mr Robert Porter
Jackson, United States’ Ambassador to Ghana, says corruption will remain a
challenge to Ghana’s development if the creation of the Special Prosecutor’s
Office does not lead to prosecutions and convictions.
He noted that while Ghana was
currently not the most corrupt nation, it was also not the least corrupt country,
with corruption perceptions getting worse.
He said there was the need for
serious accountability in order to have transparency and lauded the creation of
the Special Prosecutor’s office, but maintained: “…until there are actual
prosecutions and convictions, this will remain a key issue facing Ghana and
retarding its development,” he stated.
He made the statement during a
panel discussion at the launch of the National Anti-Corruption and Transparency
Week in Accra on Monday.
He noted that Ghana was a wealthy
country and would be able to continue its development in the absence of aid, if
it put in the right measures.
“…If you do open public
procurement, if you allow people to compete, if you have a right to information
bill so that people can acquire information, if you prosecute people and hold
them accountable, Ghana’s revenue will be substantially higher, so there will
be much less need for foreign assistance,” he stated.
He added that Ghana’s wealth
should be channelled into schools, hospitals and other social services instead
of into someone’s car or home.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Senior
Minister, who participated in the panel and also launched the week, said
President Akufo Addo’s government was committed to ensure that people who had
wronged the state through corruption were punished for their wrongs.
He said though Ghanaians were
getting disappointed and impatient with the delay or lack of prosecution of
perpetrators of corruption, government was keen on ensuring that thorough
investigations were carried before any action was taken on them.
“We are certainly going to make
people who have wronged this country in corruption suffer for their deeds, but
we don’t want to do this in a hurry because we must do thorough investigation.
We must not do things in such a way that it’s like we’re after our political
opponents, far from it! We must do it in such a way that people who have
wronged the system are identified through thorough investigation and made to
answer for their crimes, according to the laws of the land,” he said.
Other panellists, including Nana
Osei Bonsu of the Private Enterprise Federation and Professor John Asafo Adjei,
a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, maintained the
perceptions of corruption were on the rise, even though it did not necessarily
imply a rise in actual corruption.
They stressed the need to stem
the ‘bleeding’ and empower the private sector to resist corruption in order to
ensure that Ghana survived beyond aid.
Mr Joseph Whittal, Commissioner
of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ),
highlighted the need for collaboration among various stakeholders to address
the problem of corruption, which he noted posed a great challenge to the
development of the country.
“No one person, institution, or
sector can fight it alone, neither public education nor law enforcement nor
prevention, standing alone, can effectively combat corruption,” he said, adding
that corruption must be addressed as a collective responsibility by all sectors
of society.
Mr Zoltan Agai, Head of the
European Union Commission in Ghana, said corruption was at the heart of many of
the world’s problems and tackling it was vital for sustaining economic growth.
He said the impunity achieved by
perpetrators of corruption was a major contributor to poverty thus the
commitment of development partners like the EU to the fight against corruption.
He also commended the passing of
the Special Prosecutor bill and appealed to government to provide the needed
resources to frontline anti-corruption institutions to help them deliver on
their mandate.
The week will include a two-day
Anti-corruption conference with the Inter Anti-Corruption Day celebration of
December 9, regional dialogues on corruption, debates at some tertiary
institutions as well as a public sector leadership awards.
Information about the week will
be available on social media with the hashtag #GhanaSaysNo.
GNA
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