Focus on preventive measures to curb corruption – GACC

By Iddi
Yire, GNA

Accra, Sept. 18, GNA – The Ghana
Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) on Tuesday underscored the need for
stakeholders to focus more on preventive measures in the fight against
corruption in the country.

Mrs Beauty Emefa Narteh, the Executive
Secretary, GACC, said “as a country we have made some commitment in terms of
strides but there was a lot more to be done particularly in the area of
enforcement, which remained one of the biggest challenges”.

She said GACC recognises government’s effort
in introducing measures such as paperless port policy, however, there was a
need to do more with regards to how to have limited public and citizens’ engagement
in terms of service delivery.

Mrs Narteh made these remarks in an interview
with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sideline of a roundtable on Fiscal
Transparency and Accountability Demands of Civil Society Organization (CSOs) to
Government.

She explained that, these prevent measures
were important; to help take away vulnerabilities in the fight against
corruption.

“The other challenge is that, we have not been
able to put in the political will; which is not only at the political level but
even at the institutional level,” she added.

The GACC Executive Secretary said the
institutions mandated to serve as anti-corruption agencies had not been able to
perform well due to the challenges they were having, such as their human
resource capacity and independence.

She noted that interference in the activities
of anti-corruption agencies would suggest that their   independence was being stifled.

Mrs Nartey said GACC was hopeful that all
institutions mandated to perform these anti-corruption measures would have the
independence to work and operate; so that the reasons behind the constitutional
provisions for their establishment would be fully achieved or attained.

The roundtable, which was organised by the
GACC, discussed Civil Society’s fiscal transparency and accountability demands
on the government, the extent of government response and the way forward.

The roundtable was part of a project dubbed
“Citizens Action for Public Accountability and Pro-Poor Spending,” which is being
implemented by the GACC and the Economic Governance Platform with support from
OXFAM in Ghana.

The project aims at creating public awareness
on the budget and to mobilize citizens to demand accountability and fairness in
the fiscal regime towards addressing inequality.

The demands discussed include: A call for a
more aggressive domestic tax revenue mobilization; and a call for independent
bodies to investigate payment practices in Parliament.

Others are a call to translate commitments from
the United Kingdom Anti -Corruption Summit into real actions and a call for the
empowerment of citizens.

The rest are the creation of the Office of the
Special Prosecutor (OSP); a call for a review of the Public Financial
Management Act; a call for the regular publication of budget information; and a
call for the speedy and transparent investigations into corruption allegations.

The GACC is a unique cross-sectoral grouping
of public, private and civil society organizations (CSOs) with a focus on
promoting good governance and fighting corruption in Ghana.

Its vision is a Ghana that is free from
corruption where honesty, transparency, accountability, integrity and inclusion
are upheld, thereby, helping to improve the standard of living of the people.

GNA

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