Mahama’s Government Is The Most Corrupt In West Africa-TI

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(ALLAFRICA) Transparency International (TI), a leading global anti-corruption organisation, has indicted Ghana as one of the most corrupt countries under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama in the West African sub-region.

In its Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) for 2013, it revealed that in Ghana, 54% of the 2,000 respondents reported that corruption had increased in the past two years, while only 20% reported that corruption had decreased.

Similarly, 64% of the respondents felt that corruption was a very serious problem, while 18% felt it was a serious problem, bringing the total to 82% who felt that corruption was a problem. Only 6% felt corruption was not a problem, while 12% were undecided.

The Global Corruption Barometer 2013 is a survey of the public?s perceptions and experiences of corruption in 107 countries, covering 114,000 people in all.

In Ghana, a total number of 2,000 people were surveyed, comprising respondents from two Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in each of the 10 regions.

Transparency International, which released the GCB simultaneously in all the countries covered by the survey, and where it has country/local chapters, yesterday disclosed that ?More than one person in two thinks corruption has worsened in the last two years, although survey participants also firmly believe that they can make a difference in the fight against corruption, and have the will to take action against graft.?

In general, the GCB 2013 shows that corruption is widespread, with 27% of all respondents having paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months. According to Madam Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International, ?Bribe paying levels remain very high worldwide, but people believe they have the power to stop corruption, and the number of those willing to combat the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery is significant.?

However, in Ghana, the good news is that only 8% of the respondents felt that the government was run entirely by a few big entities acting in their own interests, while 38% felt that, to a large extent, a few big entities run the government, bringing the total to 47%. Even then, this is still a significant figure.

Only 7% of the respondents felt that the government?s efforts at fighting corruption was very effective, while 23% felt that it was effective, bringing the total to only 30% of those having confidence in the government?s efforts in fighting corruption, the GCB stated.

It was quick to add: ?18% of the respondents felt the government?s efforts were very ineffective while 37% felt they were ineffective, bringing the total to 57% of the respondents saying that the government?s efforts were ineffective.?

The respondents were asked to assess a number of public institutions as to how they view them in respect of corruption. As has been the case in the past, the police topped the list (with 4.7 out of 5) as the most corrupt category of institutions, followed by political parties, with a score of 4.2 out of 5.

The details are shown n the table below, which also shows the situation in earlier years:

To substantiate this, the respondents were asked if they made contact with a number of the institutions, and whether they had paid a bribe.

In all, 54% of the respondents who made contact with various public service institutions reported having paid a bribe. For example, of the 38% of the respondents who made contact with the police, 79% paid a bribe, while of the 21% of the respondents who made contact with the Lands services such Lands Department, Land Valuation, Town and Country Planning and Land Title Registry, 52% paid a bribe.

Also, 59% of the respondents made a contact with the education system, and out of this 38% paid a bribe. Although only 16% of the respondents had contact with the judiciary, 57% of this number paid a bribe, giving cause to worry as corruption in the judiciary can send several innocent citizens to prison.

When the respondents were asked to state the reasons for which they had to pay a bribe, 30% of the respondents who paid a bribe, did so, because it was the only way to obtain the service they wanted, while 45% paid a bribe because they wanted to speed up things.

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