The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho West in the Volta Region, Kwasi Bedzrah, has suggested amendment of the Asset Declaration procedure to ensure public disclosure and combat corruption.
“This is necessary to ensure public disclosure of assets and combat corruption by government appointees, parliamentarians and persons considered as political risks including all public servants in key positions,” he stated.
Mr Bedzrah recommended consideration of the House Section 124 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) be amended to make corruption a first-degree felony, instead of its present form as a second-degree felony and persons found culpable in the Auditor General’s Report should be dealt with according to the law.
Making the suggestion on the floor of Parliament, when he delivered a statement dubbed “Strategies and Mechanisms for the Transparent Management of COVID-19 Funds”, to mark the African Anti-Corruption Day Celebration, the MP said the government must have the political will to fight corruption.
Mr Bedzrah, who is also the Chairman of the Ghana Chapter of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC), noted that since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, there had been series of corruption allegations on how some African Governments had used the funds received on behalf of their citizens to manage it and pervasiveness of corruption and its negative ramifications were widely witnessed in most developing countries.
“It is an irrefutable fact COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has brought to the fore corruption challenges across countries in the world and Africa in particular and it is significant to state corruption related to the pandemic has been reported in a number of African countries which the outflows directly impacted quality of life on the continent.
“It is sad to note from the report of Ghana Integrity Initiative Ghana of $3 billion loses to corruption annually; Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition and SEND-Ghana revealed the country lost 30 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product to corruption every year.
“IMANI Africa and Oxfam also disclosed between 2015 to 2020, Ghana lost a total of GH¢13.9 billion in financial irregularities covering procurement, cash, tax, payroll, rent, and contract irregularities and ranked 73 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, clear indication corruption is pervasive in our country,” Mr Bedzrah decried.
