Ghana has dropped four percentage points in its 2016 corruption perception index, scoring 43 out of a clean score of 100.
This is according to the latest Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International. The country was ranked 70 out of 176 countries globally; performing worse than countries such as Rwanda, Namibia and Senegal.
The annual index ranks countries on views of business people and country experts on the level of public sector corruption in a country.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local wing of Transparency International, Mary Awelana Addah, said the latest ranking shows that the fight against corruption over the past year has been ineffective.
While describing the situation as worrying, she indicated that, there could have been several cases of corruption, which in her view, contributed to Ghana scoring 43 points in the latest ranking.
“For 2016, we realized that we had dropped from 47 to 43, meaning we had dropped four percentage points, and that should be worrying for us. We dropped in 2015 by one point, and we have dropped in 2016 by four points, meaning the fight against corruption has been ineffective and by implication we can allude to the fact that there have been several instances of corruption happening in the country, which could have informed these scores dropping over the years, even though in 2014 we did very well, getting the highest score ever and that is 48 out of a 100.”
“We have had the youth employment agency issue hanging on our necks, we have had the Police recruitment scandal that came up within the year, and so looking at all these things, we still have the Woyome scandal and all that, and so it is not too surprising that the country is losing marks in the fight against corruption.”
Mahama fought corruption – Kofi Adams
Meanwhile the National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has said the former President, John Dramani Mahama, cannot be held responsible for the development since in his view, he fought corruption during his tenure.
“There were issues of corruption in the judiciary. President Mahama together with the Chief Justice acted right and fairly and those persons are still challenging the matter in court. You mentioned the GYEEDA scandal and this matter happened in 2012, and there are persons who are going through trial. You talked about Police, and today we just heard about the dismissal of COP Timbilla over the recruitment scam, and it tells you that government was very determined in making sure that we do things to improve upon the performance of governance institutions. In the course of our campaigns, you clearly heard about former President Mahama’s intention to run as much as possible, a cashless situation, where state officials or institutions will not receive cash to reduce acts of corruption…”
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