Clara Beeri Kasser-Tee, a law lecturer with the Ghana Institute of Public Management and Administration (GIMPA), has called for more education for whistleblowers whom she’s doubtful have a clear understanding of the circumstances of their protection.
She agreed with calls for the review of part of the Whistle Blower’s Act which are in order saying, “They do not also trust that they will be protected, it is one thing telling them they will be protected and it is another thing telling them they will be protected”.
“If they don’t feel that they will actually be protected a lot of them are not going to utilise the system,” Mrs Kasser-Tee cautioned.
She was speaking at a ‘National Dialogue on Public Accountability: Abuse of Office’ organised by the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in Accra which formed part of the Commission’s role in the implementation of the European Union (EU) funded Anti-Corruption, Rule of Law and Accountability Programme (ARAP).
Answering a question regarding how whistleblowers will be confident to report acts of corruption Mrs Kasser-Tee pointed out that “if they do not trust the person they are reporting the issue to will not blow their cover, the individual will look on, if people are aware of the options available to them.
“What is the level of education among the public with respect to how the Act operates? I don’t think the education is very clear with them and so that confusion pertains, I disagree with the notion that the country’s traditional values system feeds into corruption.
“I do not think that is the case, people are corrupt because the cause of corruption is low but the benefits are high, if this is reversed such that the cost of corruption is high with low to zero benefits, the so-called traditional values will not affect corruption in any way,” Mrs Kasser-Tee alluded. -myjoyonline.com
