Office of the President ranked second most corrupt institution in Ghana

The Office of the President has been ranked second most corrupt top ten institutions in Ghana.

This is the result of a public perception survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

The survey had the police occupying the top most corrupt institution in the country.

Out of a sample size of 1,200 households, 23 per cent of the respondents think that nearly all police officials are corrupt.

The rather unenviable position by the office of the president  follows alleged corrupt practices  by some government appointees in recent times.

For the office of the president, 19.2 per cent of the respondents think the office is equally as corrupt with tax officials and Members of Parliament receiving 15.4 and 15 per cent respectively.

Others are government officials generally (13.9%) District Chief Executives (13.3%) judges and magistrates (13.1%), Assembly men and women (11.9%) Immigration (10.4%) and the Army (7.0%)

The survey was conducted in all the ten regions of the country with  respondents said to be 18 years and above.

Announcing the outcome of the survey, Senior Fellow at the IEA Dr Ransford Gyampo said the survey was in line with promoting good public policies.

“The purpose of the survey is to solicit and provide information on Ghanaians’ perceptions on a whole range of subjects, including: economic and living conditions, public safety and security, media freedom and abuse, discrimination and relations between ethnic groups factors which influence elections, trust in institutions, important problems confronting the country, government performance, corruption, bribery, access to public services,” he said.

“The services which people had to pay bribes etc from the most likely to the least likely are avoiding  a problem with the police, like passing a check point or avoiding a fine or arrest (6.7%) getting electricity connection,  (6.6%) getting a document or permit (6.3%) getting treatment in a local hospital  (5.1%) and finally getting a place in government SHS for a child (5.1%).

The survey also attempted to find out the public’s trust in Public Institutions and it was largely unimpressive.

Out of 11institutions studied, 37.4 per cent of the people said they do not at all trust the tax department.