President’s vision for Ghana beyond aid is achievable – Richard Quayson
Mr Richard Quayson, Deputy Director, at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has said that President’s vision for a “Ghana Beyond Aid” is a true and achievable target if pragmatic measures are taken to tackle corruption in the country holistically.
He said Ghana was estimated to be losing about $3billion annually to corruption, yet its infrastructural deficit was so huge that losses made to corruption in a year alone could bring the needed development to the country.
Mr Quayson said these at a day’s public sensitisation programme for key institutions including, officials of District and Municipal Assemblies, Community Based Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, the Security Agencies and the media drawn from the Upper East Region.
The programme is an initiative of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) in collaboration with the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Ghana News Agency (GNA) serving as a media partner.
Mr Quayson acknowledged that indiscipline was the main triggering element to corruption and said public service expenditure was extremely over bloated creating a huge gap between realistic pricing and costing in the infrastructure development needs of the country.
He said corruption had become hospitable in the Ghanaian society and indicated that the phenomenon had become so pervasive that, Ghana would continue to be under developed no matter how much investment the country makes in its desire to bring the necessary relief to the citizenry.
The Deputy Commissioner stated that corruption, indiscipline, and lawlessness were at the cradle of the under development that the country had experienced over the years and said “until we resolve to change our attitudes towards our development by tackling corruption in its entirety we will continue to struggle for the development we yearn for”.
He said as Ghanaians “we must not renege in our duty. In the past we reneged on our duties and we are paying the price for it”, adding that “if we accept that corruption threatens our being, then we must take interest in fighting it”.
“There is high tolerance for corruption. We have given corruption nice titles and giving it glorification and so the problems linger on.” He added.
He said there is high tolerance for corruption, which is eating into the fabric of society and reiterated “let us agree that the anti-corruption fight is for all of us to do and not the preserve of some selected institutions”.
He reminded the participants that corruption was endemic throughout Africa and said “It is estimated that Africa losses about$100 billion in corruption while the Economic Commission of Africa puts the corruption index conservatively at $60 billion, yet it’s people are griped in abject poverty”.
The Deputy Commissioner therefore called on the participants to show interest in the response against corruption and help tackle the canker in its entirety.
Source: GNA