A former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka has lauded the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the measures made in the fight against corruption.
According to him, the government had implemented and enacted various laws and policies that have made it easy for agencies and institutions, including the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), to subject government officials to scrutiny.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on February 3, he said, “Let me tell you this, do a cross-check, there has never been in the history of Ghana any time when sitting government officials have been subjected to accountability by a state institution like now.
“If you look at what the OSP is doing, down to sitting public heads and institutions, it has never ever happened. When I did my check, I realized that the numbers are increasing day by day at frightening levels.
“The people who have been reported to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for investigations and prosecutions at various stages, we have the numbers at frightening levels. What does that tell you? It vindicates the very purpose for which the office was set up.”
His comment comes in the wake of Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks Ghana as 70th out of 180 countries in terms of corruption.
The country scored 43 out of a possible 100, which is the same score since 2020.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana scored better than 39 other countries, including Burkina Faso (41), South Africa (41), Côte d’Ivoire (40), Tanzania (40), and Lesotho (39).
Mr Kpemka clarified that despite efforts made by the government, there appears to be more work needed to be done to completely eradicate corruption from our society.
“There have been efforts to fight corruption by the government, deliberately through statutory provision and enactment of laws but we find that we are either stagnating or deteriorating.
“I am saying that we have to diagnose what are the basic causes and principles underlining the fact that we have all the beautiful laws that are promulgated over time and period and yet we are unable to reduce it to the barest minimum,” he said.
Source: myjoyonline.com