Leading anti-corruption campaign group in Ghana, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has observed progressive drop in incidences of official corruption across government financing and activities in the last few year the country had embraced digitization of every government activity and programmes.
GII averred in a statement made available to Business Hilights Ghana Bureau chief that “digitalisation is changing the ways we communicate, and how we do business and as a result reduced the corruption rate in Ghana”.
Besides, Transparency International (TI), noted that, “the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has ranked Ghana, 81 out of 180 countries and territories included in this year’s CPI, to fight against corruption”.
The Alliance for Integrity also posited that advanced technology is enabling new risk management tools to monitor and detect fraud automatically.
The GII acknowledged the fact that some of the new initiatives started by government such as the Paperless Port Clearing System, E-Procurement and the Digital Addressing System had improved business integrity and ultimately reduced corruption in the public sector.
The group noted further that another area requiring digitalisation was the implementation of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), in addition to putting in place clear policy guidelines among others to reduce red tape and eliminate opportunities for people entrusted with power to misuse it for private gain.
However, GII was quick to recommend that Government should demonstrate more practical commitment to fighting corruption by enacting key legislation such as the Right to Information (RTI), Witness Protection, and the Conduct of Public Officer’s Bill.
GII also stressed that, the newly created Office of the Special Prosecutor, together with anti-corruption institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) should be adequately resourced.
It suggested that Government and businesses must do more to encourage an open and engaged civil society to see the need to fight against corruption and also encourage civil society to hold political and institutional leadership accountable and enthused citizens to report issues related to corruption when they become victims and witnesses of some, as prescribed by the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP).
