Stop blaming media - Mills urges Government

Accra, Oct. 24, GNA - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Friday urged the Government to accept the report on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) issued by Transparency International, which placed Ghana at the 72nd position out of 133 competing countries on the World Corruption Perception Index.

"It was unfortunate that both the Minister of Information and the President himself sought to blame the media for the serious findings of perception of corruption in the CPI Report," Professor John Evans Atta Mills, NDC Presidential Candidate for Elections 2004, stated at a press conference in Accra on Friday.

Prof Mills flanked by Dr Obed Asamoah, Chairman; Dr Josia Nii Ayeh, General Secretary both of the NDC, and other leading members of the Party including Parliamentarians, said it was unfortunate for Government to blame the media because within the Ghanaian society, perception mirrors to a large extent the reality.

"The media only mirrors society, even though, sometimes it is not a very sharp mirror and, therefore, distorts society's reality. But the media does not reflect a totally different image of the reality...that is what President Kufuor and his Government must accept," he emphasised. He said all the rumours might not be true, "but for as long as they are not investigated they feed into the perception of corruption...if they are investigated and found to be untrue, provided, the investigations are genuinely and independently conducted, they effectively kill the rumour and the perception of corruption in the process.

"If the rumours are investigated and found to be true, provided the appropriate sanctions are applied, they signal a determination of the Government to do something about corruption and, therefore, erase any perception of official connivance with or condoning of corruption." Prof Mills said so long as nothing was done about the allegations it would persist in the newspapers and float around for the perception to continue.

The NDC Presidential Candidate said any government that wanted to do something serious about corruption must ensure that the anti-corruption laws were obeyed and sanctions applied as well against defaulters.

"President Kufuor's NPP Government is doing neither. Day in day out, we see and hear people - officials and non-officials alike - indulge in corrupt practices with joyous abandon.

"But we hear less about what sanctions are applied to those, who breach the anti-corruption laws or who indulge in corruption." Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament, in his interventions noted that Parliament would initiate actions through education aimed at sensitising the public on the impact of corruption. He said the Public Accounts Committee would collaborate with other Governance Institutions to intensify its watchdog role over the executive and other public institutions to ensure high degree of maintenance of accountability.