The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) says the passiveness of Ghana’s Criminal Code is the cause for increase in public corruption.
The group believes the enactment of new laws and review of existing ones will be instrumental in the fight against corruption in the country.
Research officer of the Coalition, Bright Sowu, says the treatment of corruption as a misdemeanor has contributed to the rise of the canker.
He has therefore charged the citizenry to support a push for the enforcement of existing laws against corruption.
“The issue now is about enforcement of the laws; that is what we are not doing now as a country. If the political class could not push for the enforcement we need citizens to make some noise on that,” he told Luv News in Kumasi at a workshop to introduce the GACC’s newly created corruption report mechanism.
The GACC has partnered the USAID to champion the fight against corruption in the country.
A four-year project dubbed “USAID Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening Project” is expected to increase advocacy for change in laws concerning corruption.
It will also increase documentation and exposure of corruption through civil society mechanism.
Mr. Sowu believes with continuous reporting of corrupt institutions to the GACC, the canker can be brought to the barest minimum.
“We have provided platforms like ‘I paid a bribe platform’ where we receive reports of corruption via email, phone calls, and posts. The reports we get here are collated and we do follow up on these cases,” he noted.
He added that the GACC through the newly introduced Local Accountability Network is helping fight corruption.
The program provides checks for local assemblies in the area of costing and inspection of infrastructural projects of these assemblies.
