By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Addah, has charged anti-graft institutions mandated to deal with corruption and corrupt practices to use prosecutions and sanctions for wrongdoings to curb corruption.
According to her, Ghana’s approach to combating corruption is not effective and biting enough hence to deter people from engaging in the act.
She said despite widespread public awareness regarding corruption, there has been a lack of prosecution and sanctionsfor wrongdoings or corrupt practices.
The Executive Director of GII stated emphatically that the fight against corruption has been more rhetorical than action-oriented.
Ms Addah points out that institutions mandated to address this menace, often fall short by merely talking about it rather than taking decisive actions.
In her view, the gap between rhetoric and action contributes to the persistence of corruption in the country.
Ms Addah said this when making her submissions during the “Citizen’s State of the Nation” aired on Accra based Citi TV yesterday, February 28, 2024.
She highlighted that a strong commitment to holding wrongdoers accountable is essential for curbing corruption and ensuring a more transparent and accountable society.
“We have seen the state of corruption being fueled by rhetoric rather than action and most of the public sector institutions, including the executive are seen to be talking about the issue more than action. We have seen that in most instances we do a lot of public awareness and yet it does not reflect in actual investigations, prosecutions and sanctioning of the corrupt. And this has been fueled also by the restrictive nature of our legislation, particularly when it comes to the definition of what exactly corruption is and so people get away with all sorts of wrongdoing,” Ms Addah reiterated.
The Executive Director of GII is calling for the urgency of moving beyond words to implementing effective measures.
