SPECIAL PROSECUTOR LAUNCHES GHANA CORRUPTION LEAGUE TABLE TO CURB THE CORRUPTION-MALADY
On Tuesday, 23 March 2022, the Office of the Special Prosecutor of Ghana launched the Ghana Corruption League Table to help curb the ailing corruption acts happening within the public sector. This action it considers as indispensable if the country really wants to effectively end these skyrocketed corruption incidents which are swivelling to stay with us.
In the remarks by the Special Prosecutor during the launch of the project, he reiterated his initial declaration during his approval process before parliament that “he is resolved to render corruption a costly adventure on all accounts.” Staying true to his word and in pursuant to the office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) to deliver on his mandate, he asserted that this initiative marks the commencement of the realisation of his vision.
The project which has been christened the Ghana Corruption League Table is akin to the combination of the corruption perception index programme of Transparency International and that of Afrobarometer. It is a research-based model designed to assess real and perceived levels of public sector corruption.
He also made known that public sector agencies would be ranked against each other on a corruption barometer and the results would be published annually on International Anti-corruption Day. This he believes will form the basis for enhanced pragmatic suppression and repression of corruption in the public sector.
Also, as required by regulation 31(2) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374), the project would identify the causes that advance corruption in the public sector including deficiencies in regulations and procedures, deficiencies in the administration of instructions (including lack of internal control mechanism), individual interest (including greed, lack of ethicalness and legal awareness), and external influences (including public attitude, culture and traditions) – to facilitate the prevention of corruption.
Mr. Kissi Agyabeng asserted that the approach will be critically documenting corruption, measuring corruption, ascertaining the breeding of corruption, naming and shaming peddlers of corruption, accessing the impact of anti-corruption initiatives and taking curative and remedial measures to crackdown corruption.
“It is time to move beyond the composite annual ranking of countries on a corruption drop list to won our local narrative and fashion and retool our reformation by prodding our public sector into real and concrete actions against corruption and corrupt practices”, as said by the special prosecutor in his speech.
There are two reputable institutions ie. Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Afrobarometer Directorate of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) partnering with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to facilitate this project.
