General News of Thursday, 22 February 2018
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2018-02-22
Daniel Batidam
A corruption advisor to former president John Mahama has fired a gun-scatter attack on government for attempting to shift the blame on the NDC for the worsening corruption in the country as captured by the local chapter of Transparency International, Ghana Integrity Initiative.
Daniel Batidam told Joy News’ Gifty Andoh Appiah any attempt to shift the blame on the NDC is “disingenuous, dishonest and un-academic.”
His comments come hours after Ghana recorded a damning verdict on the 2017 Corruption Perception Index released Wednesday.
Ghana scored 40 out of a possible clean score of 100 which ranked the country 81 out of 180 countries assessed, the lowest since 2012.
Of the nine institutions which assessed Ghana’s corruption perception in 2017, which included World Bank Country policy and institutional assessment, seven of them scored the government below 50 signalling a poor performance in the fight against corruption in 2017.
The score has triggered a political controversy with the two biggest political parties attempting to score political points with the corruption verdict.
The government spokesperson on Governance and Legal Affairs, Herbert Krapa said the worsening corruption perception is as a result of the scandals that erupted in 2016 shortly after the NDC left office.
“Where else would they be taking their data from other than instances like bus branding, payment to Ghana Standard Authority kickback?” he said.
But his comments appear to have angered officials of the NDC.
Former Deputy Information Minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu said the comments by the government are “astonishing in its defiance of logic.”
He described the government as “nepotistic”.
But the anti-corruption crusader, Bartidam has delivered an even deadlier blow to the government.
He said any statement or suggestion that seeks to blame the NDC for the sad state of Akufo-Addo’s corruption fight will be an act of gross intellectual dishonesty.
If anything, Bartidam said the poor 2017 score on corruption is a testimony that Akufo-Addo’s fight against corruption is still high on rhetoric.
He said the score represents the reality of the kind of corruption businessmen and women have seen in the year under review.