A former Minister of Trade, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has said anti-corruption institutions in the country are doing very little to check corruption.
He said these institutions are rather spending time on insignificant issues.
His comment comes in the wake of the release of the 2019 Global Corruption Perception Index which ranked Ghana 80 out of 180 countries.
Ghana scored 41 out of 100 points, maintaining its 2018 score.
This score seems not to be surprising to Mr. Spio-Garbrah who says corruption is gradually becoming institutionalized in the country.
“Everyone knows that in any society where there are 30 million people, there will be miscreants and some culprits. If the agencies that should be chasing serious corruption cases are actually spending their time on very frivolous, sometimes incredibly unrelated things to their mandate then you get this situation.”
Details of CPI
In the latest index, Denmark and New Zealand excelled with 87 points each. Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia were at the bottom of the Index with 13, 12 and 9 points respectively.
The highest-scoring region was Western Europe and the European Union with an average score of 66, while the lowest scoring region was Sub Sahara Africa, with an average score of 32.
In 2015, Ghana scored 47 and in 2016, came down to 43. In 2017, it recorded the worst performance with an average score of 40 out of 100 and rose marginally to 41 in 2018 and maintained that figure in 2019.
Even though Ghana performed better than neighbouring Burkina Faso as well as Lesotho, the country could not catch up with countries like South Africa, Senegal, São Tomé and Principe that scored better than Ghana in 2018.
Latest CPI shows Nana Addo’s failed corruption fight – NDC
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) had earlier said Ghana’s latest score on the Corruption Perception Index signifies President Nana Akufo-Addo’s failed fight against corruption.
The party in a statement signed by its National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi said the drop by two places on the index is a dent on Ghana’s reputation.
“Our drop of two (2) places on the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI), is yet another dent on Ghana’s
reputation and a testament to the endemic corruption that has engulfed the Akufo-Addo government.
This latest CPI confirms the recent Afrobarometer survey findings by the Ghana Center for Democratic
Development (CDD), that 53% of Ghanaians think that corruption has worsened under the Akufo-Addo-led
government.”
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Citifmonline
