Heads of institutions must exhibit honesty - GII

Mary Awelana Addah, Programme Coordinator, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has challenged heads of institutions to exhibit honesty in their fields of operation.

“The Heads of our institutions, departments and agencies must stand for integrity and high moral value,” she said.

Ms Addah was addressing participants at an inception meeting on the promotion of Accountable Democratic Institutions and System Strengthening (ADISS) project.

The five-year project, aimed at fighting corruption in Ghana is under the auspices of the “GII Consortium,” made up of GII, Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition, and SEND-Ghana, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Participants for the inception meeting were drawn from the Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Volta regions.

Ms Addah said the identity of the Ghanaian was fast changing from high integrity to very low integrity, and asked the heads to lead the campaign against corruption.

She said in view of the numerous opportunities for corruption, it was increasingly becoming difficult for the Ghanaian to be honest, and called for legislative amendments and moral re-orientation.

Ms Addah said, currently there was general dissatisfaction among the populace about governance, and said it was time people in “sensitive” positions sat up to avoid a ‘revolution.’

She called for stiffer sanctions for corrupt acts.

Mr Joseph Appiah-Kubi, Brong Ahafo Region Anti-Corruption Officer for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) said, though the country's had laws to fight corruption, it was facing implementation challenges.

He said CHRAJ appeared ineffective in fighting corruption because it was not well resourced.

Mr Appiah-Kubi said the mandate of the Commission was also too broad, and called for a second look at it.