GII intensifies efforts to make corruption unacceptable

Accra, Oct. 8, GNA - Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International (TI), has renewed its commitment to make Ghana a virtually corruption-free country in all spheres of human endeavour.

"GII seeks to ensure that people and institutions act with integrity, accountability and transparency to create change towards a country free of corruption and thereby reduce poverty for accelerated development," Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, GII Programmes Manager, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, after the launch of the Africa Education Watch Project report in Accra.

"GII will continue to build a culture of integrity, where corruption would be unprofitable for people in government, politics, business and civil society, through collaboration with like-minded people and groups," she said.

Mrs Ofori-Kwafo said in line with GII objectives, it was currently pursuing an agenda to bring the campaign against corruption, demand for accountability and good governance to the doorsteps of the most important stakeholders in our democratic dispensation at the district and regional levels.

She explained that GII had also intensified sensitization of relevant stakeholders through dialoguing and advocacy for legislative and institutional reforms.

Mrs Ofori-Kwafo said GII through its public education and capacity building programmes would expose Ghanaians to the causes, effects and solutions to the problem of corruption as well as the importance and avenues for reporting corruption and seeking redress. Other GII interventions are the launch of transparency and integrity in service delivery in Africa project; gender and tax justice in Ghana; production and distribution of GII's quarterly newsletter and establishment of advocacy and legal advice centre. She said in an effort to create change towards a world free of corruption and thereby reduce poverty and accelerate development, six of TI's national chapters in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, were implementing a programme tagged: "Poverty and Corruption in Africa -Strengthening TI's Ability to Respond." Mrs Ofori-Kwafo said the project sought to increase the impact of the TI national chapter's work on the livelihoods of disadvantaged communities, strengthen the capacity of national chapters in Africa to develop and implement dedicated programmes that address corruption in the development process.

She said in Ghana, the project was focusing on empowering three communities in the Ga East Municipality to demand transparency, responsiveness and accountability in the provision of water to their communities.

Mrs Ofori-Kwafo said GII had organized about 60 public education and capacity building workshops throughout the country to create awareness about the negative effects of corruption and to sensitize citizens to demand responsiveness, accountability and transparency from people and institutions in their communities and district administrative structures.

She said GII would continue to mobilize citizens at the grassroots to become anti-corruption monitors and crusaders and to instil trust and confidence in Ghanaians that despite the pervasiveness of corruption in the social, economic and political environments, "it can be controlled".