State Attorney expresses worry about "dishonest considerations"

Ho, Aug 6, GNA - Mr Koku Mensah Akude, a State Attorney at the Volta Regional Office, on Monday expressed worry about the rising rate at which decisions at formal sector establishments were based on "dishonest considerations".

"We no longer appreciate honesty to the extent that honest officers are almost always victimized, transferred or given other names," he held.

He was addressing a workshop on promoting democracy and good governance. The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the National Commission organized it for Civic Education (NCCE). The two-day workshop, attended by personnel of the security services, assembly members, representatives of political parties and the judiciary, was under the theme: "Fighting Corruption-An Agenda for Democracy and Good Governance".

Mr Akude expressed regret that underhand dealings appeared now to be the norm so much that the onus on any Ghanaian now was to prove that he or she was not corrupt since everybody was deemed to be corrupt. He said the lack of perception among Ghanaians that corruption was a criminal act, patronage; weak and ineffective powers of prosecution and non-deterrent sanctions were hampering the fight against the canker. Mr Akude however lauded efforts by government to strengthen the hands of anti-corruption agencies through legislations, which had been passed, or being passed.

He said local government institutions should be rid of corruption to promote development, suggesting that District Chief Executives (DCEs) should be elected and not appointed to make them more responsible to the electorate than the appointing body.

Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Secretary of the GII, said the workshop, being replicated in all regions, was to create awareness about the negative effects of corruption and to sensitise citizens to demand responsiveness, accountability and transparency from people and institutions in their communities.

Mr Issaka Richard Zakari, Volta Regional Director of the NCCE, listed the cumbersome bureaucratic red-tape and procedures of public institutions, low public sector wages and salaries, abuse of the practice of giving and accepting gifts and the inability of the value system in Ghana to deter the people from being corrupt as some fundamental causes of the malady.

He also blamed "public apathy, regarding corruption practices and the lack of that moral courage to question the source of people's wealth or speak against malfeasance or demand accountability" as promoting corruption in the country.

Mr Tenasu Kofi Gbedemah, a Social Worker, said cultural practices which lauded riches without knowing the source condoned corruption, adding that the practice of giving jobs to those not capable and dishonest management of reward systems in workplaces were some of the practices that must be eliminated. Mrs Joycelyn Ochlich-Dotse, Chairperson of the Development Planning Sub-Committee of the Ho Municipal Assembly blamed the system rather than the people for promoting corruption in the country.