By Joyce
Danso, GNA
Accra June 20, GNA – Eighty-two percent of
respondents sampled in four regions in Ghana think that most Ghanaians are
corrupt and believed in paying
facilitation and illegal fees before accessing public services.
The respondents also did not see giving of
gifts to public official as bribery.
This was contained in the 50 page METOGU Anti-
Corruption Report launched in Accra on Wednesday.
The METOGU project is a systematic and
on-going appraisal research report of the 2016 manifesto of the New Patriotic
Party government promise on corruption.
The analysis focused on seven thematic areas
including; the General Corruption issues, the Creation of the Office of the
Special prosecutor, the passage of the Right to Information Bill, Reforms of
the Public Procurement Act and Value for money.
The rest are; beneficial ownership Title, the
Passage of the Public Officers Code of Conduct Bill and Assets Declaration
Regime, the National Health Insurance Scheme and School Feeding programme.
Dr George –Grandy Hallow and Dr Foster
Frempong, Consultants of Pensplusbyte took turns to throw more light on the
research.
The report showed that there were beliefs that
the Special Prosecutor could deal with the fight against Corruption cases but
expressed fears that there would be political interference in his work.
It noted 79.6 per cent respondents believed
that government could starve the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) of
resources and make it redundant given the euphoria that greeted the creation of
the creation of ECOC and CHRAJ.
The research further revealed that with regard
to Procurement Act and Value for Money for Audits, 56.8 per cent felt that
competitive bidding through Public Procurement Act (PPA) guidelines would
ensure value for money.
However 46.5 per cent believed that the NPP
government had not used competitive bidding in the award of its contracts since
assuming power.
On election of MMDCE’s respondents believed
that government could not fulfil its promise within the four year mandate and
the report therefore recommended that government collaborated with Civil
Societies to pick up relevant information on corruption and the Right to
information Bill for passing.
It further called for a framework that would
insulate the School Feeding programme from excessive politicisation.
“The OSP and other relevant anti- corruption
state institutions must the resourced and government must have the political
will to deal with corruption and appealed to the Ghana Education Service and
the Ministry of Education to consider introducing “Anti-Corruption” into basic
and secondary school.
GNA