Ghana Can Do Better On Corruption Perception

Yesterday, the Ghanaian Times reported that Ghana has been ranked 78 out of 180 countries on the Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for the year 2018.

The CPI also gives the country a score of 41 out of a possible clean score of 100 for the same period, indicating that the country had improved upon its performance by one point from the 2017 score of 40.

The score, according to the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International was a positive departure from the continuous drop the country has been experiencing since 2015.

The Ghanaian Times cannot agree more with GII that the 2018 score is a positive departure from the continuous drop that the country has been experiencing.

Sadly however, we do not think the drop can be linked directly to reduction in corruption in the country.

Mind you, the rankings are based only on corruption perception and therefore would be misleading for anyone to think that the performance represents anything close to reduction of corruption in the country.

Corruption is endemic and can be found in every sphere of life not only in Ghana but almost all countries in varying degrees.

The degree to which it impacts the lives of the people also affects the development of the country.

More directly, common people are mostly affected because corruption increases poverty.

Today, across the country, poverty has become a scourge and the level of development in some parts of the country clearly shows that state resources to these areas may not be getting to the people.

At the higher level and particularly in public service, corruption is always cited as the bane of development of the country.

And that is why many people believe that corruption cannot be eradicated in spite of efforts by government including the establishment of the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP).

As a matter of fact, corrupt activities including bribery take place under our noses and many of us condone the practice in many varied ways.

Although it is a good sign that corruption perception is going down, we want to see corruption also going down in our everyday lives.

It is not enough for us to be scoring high marks for corruption perception and be vocal about it and yet continue with the bad practice.

We rather must work to eradicate corruption in police, judiciary, health, land administration, public procurement among others.

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