Christian Council of Ghana holds symposium on anti-corruption

Accra, Dec 8, GNA-The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) in collaboration with the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa (FECCIWA) on Thursday organized an anti-corruption symposium to educate the youth and Christians to stay away from corrupt practices.

The theme of the symposium was: “Corruption is Evil - Fight It Now” which was attended by about a 100 participants from church youth groups, students groups and Christian mothers.

Ms Joyce Steiner, Programmes Manager of CCG said corruption had become a canker destroying the society and the Council decided to come in to help support efforts at curbing it.

She said the symposium formed part of activities earmarked by the Council to mark the anti-corruption week celebration which the CCG started two years ago.

According to her, corruption was not only perpetuated by politicians or public officers but the youth and students also engaged in corruption by refusing to study but buy examination question papers from dubious people to enable them to pass exams.

“Some also pay bribes to enter tertiary institutions”, she added, and expressed the hope that the symposium would equip the participants with the needed knowledge to enable them to become anti-corruption campaigners.

Mr Michael A. Ansa, Assistant Registrar, Accra Office, University of Development Studies who facilitated the project said participants were expected to become change agents to help fight corruption tendencies in schools and churches.

The Reverend Akwa Bonne of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Beersheba Congregation, La-Bawaleshie, Accra, who spoke on “Religious Foundations Against Corruption”, said corruption which was a canker of old, was abhorred by the Bible of which God punished corrupted people severely.

He said churches today were also full of corrupt practices that would take a change of heart through truly accepting Jesus Christ as the saviour and learning to live by His teachings.

He said in the Presbyterian Church, once people were found engaged in corrupt practices, they were either suspended or made to refund any embezzled money, while there were auditing systems in place that auditted the church.

He suggested to all churches without such mechanisms to adopt measures to dissuade people from engaging in corruption.