Committee on anti-bribery management system inaugurated

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with the Ghana Standard Authority (GRA), on Tuesday inaugurated a 22-member committee to oversee the Anti-Bribery Management System Standard in Accra.

The Committee’s mandate is to study the International Standard Organisation (ISO) 371001 System and see if it is suitable to be adopted for the country as a standard against bribery and corruption.

When the Committee recommends the adoption of the system, the document will be subjected to public consultation to be gazetted and published as Ghana’s standard system against bribery.

In 2016 the ISO came up with a standard called ISO 371001, an Anti-bribery management system that specifies a series of measures any organisation could implement to help prevent, detect and address bribery.

Mr Alan Kyeremanten, the Minister of Trade and Industry, in a speech read on his behalf at the Committee’s inauguration, said many countries had been denied the resources needed to finance developmental projects due to bribery and corruption.

He said government, seeing the dangers of bribery and corruption, came out with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to make bribery and corruption unattractive in the country and called for concerted efforts from all to contribute towards fighting the menace.

Mr Kyeremanten said the Anti-Bribery Management System Standard was designed to instil an anti-bribery culture within an organisation and implement appropriate controls, which in turn increased the chance of detecting bribery.

He said the effective implementation of the system called for determined and committed leadership and input from top management in terms of policy and programme.

“As a nation, the ability to build a prosperous country greatly depends on our anti-bribery stance taken today and also spearheaded into the future in whatever we do,” he added.

Justice Emil Short, the Former Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, said bribery and corruption had been a bane to the country’s development, where monies were diverted into the pocket of few individuals.

He said the Committee would take into consideration the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan to come out with a recommendation to serve the interest of the country devoid of personal interests.

Professor Alex Dodoo, the Director General of GSA, said a key tool about the System was for the organisations to have a well-defined management processes for preventing corruption.

He said some countries were beginning to institute a policy, which mandates organisations to have an anti-bribery management system before going for a public tender, adding that if the country adopted that system, it would be named as the Ghana Standard/International Standard 37001.

Professor Philip Bondzi-Simpson, the Rector of GIMPA, said education constituted one of the cardinal points in fighting bribery and corruption and helped in the reform of the legal system for the appropriate sanctions to be meted out to offenders to serve as a deterrent.

Mrs Cynthia Lamptey, the Deputy Special Prosecutor, said the Office was committed to supporting the Committee to ensure that bribery was eliminated in the country.

The members of the Committee include Mr Emile Short, a Legal Practitioner, Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, Rector of GIMPA, Mr Felix Worlako Agordoh, Head of Internal Unit, Economic and Organised Crime Office, Mrs Rhoda Appiah, Head of Corporate Affairs, Public Procurement Authority, Mr Suleiman Ahmed, Chief Director, Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, Mr Nathan Kofi Boakye, the Director General in charge of Police Intelligence and Professional Standards, Ghana Police Service.

Source: GNA