Transparency International (TI) has expressed misgivings over the government’s commitment to sanction corrupt officials.
It said though Ghana had touted to have considerable anti-corruption frameworks, including sanctioning laws, lack of commitment, dedication and determination to sanction corruption, particularly, political corruption was worrying.
The organisation stated that Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption in the year 2021 to maintain its score of 43 in 2020.
These were contained in its 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) Report which called on the government to sanction corrupt officials to serve as deterrent to others and recommended government and state anti-corruption institutions worked effectively and efficiently towards making corruption high risk and low gain venture to reduce incidences of abuse of power, impunity and corruption.
The 2021 CPI, the leading global indicator of public sector corruption, focuses on corruption, democracy and human rights due to corruption being multi-faceted problem, which needs to be solved by ending the vicious cycle, human rights violations and democratic decline.
“The government must uphold rights needed to hold power to account, restore, strengthen institutional checks on power, combat transnational forms of corruption, uphold right to information on government spending, enhance institutional check on power with public oversight bodies operating fully and independently from the Executive as their mandates demand.
“They should continuously be well-resourced with budgets allocated to them fully disbursed and empowered to effectively and efficiently investigate and sanction corruption timeously,” the report noted.
It indicated that agencies of state responsible for guarding rights of citizens should take active roles in ensuring expeditious investigation into violations of rights of civil society and media activists as well as human rights defenders and facilitate justice for crimes against all with Parliament and the Courts also vigilant in preventing Executive overreach.
The report pointed out that in improving probity, transparency and accountability in political party and campaign financing, the Electoral Commission should be held accountable to ensure enforcement of the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574), particularly Section 21, which related to disclosure of funding sources by political parties.
Parliament, it explained, should also amend Act 574 to include disclosure on funding sources for candidates contesting presidential and parliamentary elections, and stressed on ceiling on how much could be raised and spent by candidates contesting those election. -GNA
