A research fellow, with the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) Dr. Emmanuel Ayisi has tasked Civil Society Organizations (CSO)s to redirect their focus in fighting corruption.
According to Dr. Ayisi more than half of the foreign aid received by Ghana of which most CSOs depend on is lost through corruption.
Speaking at a seminar on CSO Sustainability and Ghana Beyond Aid, Dr. Ayisi, said 300% of the aid Ghana receives is lost through corruption.
“Corruption is a big deal in Ghana and if you look at the records, more than half of the aid given to Africa is lost through corruption. If we are able to cut down at least a third of corruption that is going on in this country, we could save so much for development.”
“One area that I think CSO will have to redirect their attention on is on exposing the corruption in Ghana and finding ways of also addressing it.”
Ghana’s performance on the Transparency International corruption perception index increased by a point to 41 in 2018, from its 2017 score of 40.
This left Ghana with a ranking of 78 out of 180 countries; an improvement from 2017’s rank of 81.
Ghana has averaged 38.75 Points from 1998 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 48 Points in 2014 and a record low of 33 Points in 1999.
CSOs petition
In 2018, some Civil Society Organisations petitioned the government demanding more radical measures in the fight against corruption.
The groups believe that the fight against corruption has stalled in the last decade.
They, however, noted that the adoption of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP- 2015-2024) and the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor were steps in the right direction.
The groups in the petition urged the government to continue investing substantially in those interventions and intensify their implementation.
“We must also demonstrate that there is a personal price to pay for corruption by speeding up the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases well as asset recovery of proceeds of corruption.”