Institutional weaknesses hampering fight against corruption – GII

Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) – the local chapter of Transparency International, has identified institutional weaknesses as a major obstacle to the fight against corruption in the country.

Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, the Executive-Director, said the situation where majority of anti-corruption institutions lacked the required logistics, capacity, human personnel and support to efficiently tackle the problem was unhelpful.

“The adequacy and effectiveness of these anti-corruption agencies, crucial to the fight against corruption, still remain to be seen as corrupt practices continue to plague our country”, she added.

Mrs. Ofori-Kwafo was opening a three-day workshop on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and social media to monitor and report corrupt practices and other forms of impropriety, at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.

The programme is part of the Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening Project of the GII, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The workshop brought together civil society and non-governmental organizations, the media and community-based organizations, drawn from Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Eastern Regions.

The goal was to empower them with the skills and knowledge to identify and use the ICT tools and social media platforms to monitor and report all forms of unethical and inappropriate conduct.

The expectation is that the expansion of the citizens’ social mobilization effort could help promote good governance.

Mrs. Ofori-Kwafo said the multi-faceted nature of corruption required innovative ways to appropriately deal with, and urged the participants to take advantage of knowledge acquired to join the campaign against the social evil.

Dr. Rasheed Dramani, Executive-Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), a civil society organization, asked everybody to be bold to expose corrupt practices.

Source: GNA