General News of Thursday, 12 September 2019
Source: abcnewsgh.com
2019-09-12
Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director, GII
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has chastised the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the partisan tangent it has taken in the fight against corruption, stating that such stance does not augur well for the country, ABC News can report.
According to GII, reducing the fight against corruption to political banters and debates is not useful to the country because it only retards development, leaving citizens as the ultimate victims.
The Executive Director of GII, Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, who was speaking in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM also slammed the government for acting in a similar manner, stressing that there is a need for both parties to adopt a collaborative approach to tackle the canker.
“Anytime I hear the opposition or the current administration having a banter over who did what and who is more corrupt than the other, I feel it doesn’t help Ghanaians. I think that at a point we actually have to ban them in discussing such issues in the way and manner they go about it because it is not about who did what. We keep on saying the impact and effects are more than their political interests. So we don’t actually like it; it is not proper, effective or beneficial to anybody,” she intimated.
Her comments follow a ‘reprisal press conference’ by the NDC in response to President Akufo-Addo’s remarks at the Bar Conference earlier this week on his fight against corruption.
The President touted his administration’s efforts at fighting corruption and refuted claims of clearing his appointees alleged to have engaged in acts of corruption.
His statement has led to a debate between the two leading political parties, NPP and NDC, as each says the other side is more corrupt.
Mrs Ofori-Kwafo maintained that it is essential for all parties and individuals to rise above petty political and personal interests and find a lasting panacea to the nation-wrecking plague.
“From where I sit I think it is not the best approach we should adopt both from the president’s end as well as the opposition’s.
“It is not about who did better but the extent to which we have been able to minimise corruption, pass effective laws and sanction the corrupt. These are things that matter to the Ghanaian because when we are able to sanction the corrupt, we are able to have resources for development,” she postulated.
She further called on the President to publish all corruption allegation reports to ensure transparency and accountability.
“It is essentially proper in the interest of transparency and accountability to make the reports public. Because at the end of the day we keep on saying information is being held for the people, on behalf of the people by the institutions with the responsibility and the mandate to hold the information. So when you don’t give it to us and we demand for it, then they should be made public for us,” she said.
“Whatever committees that were set up, after they have done their work in relation to corruption allegations, in the interest of transparency and accountability and in making sure our democracy advances to the next stage, it is only proper that he makes the information public for the general public to assess for themselves whether they are doing well or not,” Mrs Ofori-Kwafo added.
