Politics

Punishment meted out to corrupt officials not deterrent–Doris Gbongbo

Doris Gbongbo, the Acting Bono Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has expressed worry about punishments meted out to people engaged in corruption, saying they are not punitive enough to serve as a deterrent.

“The laws are not punitive enough, punishments that are meted out to the people caught or identified with corrupt practices are not severe enough to deter them from repeating the same offences,” she stressed.

Speaking on the sidelines of a focus group discussion on public accountability and environmental governance in Sunyani in the Ahafo Region, he cited an example where the head of a department had been identified with corrupt practice, apart from the legal actions that would be taken against that person, he or she would be transferred from that office to another or would be given a different position in a different sector.

Miss Gbongbo insisted that “this is not punitive enough, it is too light a sentence for a corrupt case, the punishments we impose for corruption play a central role in deterring future corruption, if potentially corrupt people know they will get off with a light sentence, they are likely to take the chance of committing corruption than if they know they will be sent to jail for a long time.

“There is the need NCCE for labour organisations in the country to train their staff on the directives and principles of state policy and the code of conduct regulating public service to help, support and assist the government fight corruption through the creation of awareness of the Whistleblowers Act.

“Corruption continues to impede the progress, growth and development of the country, some of the citizenry seem unconcerned, to curb it, the Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720) was enacted to empower us to expose corrupt practices and wrongdoing.

“Regrettably, the Act is not accessible to most of the citizenry who need to understand the law in a simplified way and apply it to be able to achieve the purpose for which it is intended, I urge the citizenry to effectively and efficiently utilise the Whistleblowers’ Act to ensure good governance, rule of law, promote good public ethics and preserve public interest in national affairs,” Miss Gbongbo lamented. -citinewsroom.com

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