The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has called for a pragmatic approach to fight corruption in the health, education and the judicial services in the country.
Faustina Djabatey, the communications officer of the Coalition, who made the call, said special auditing and annual audits as well as value-for-money assessment, especially in the areas of procurement, must be a key priority in these institutions.
Madam Djabatey made the call at a two-day workshop on Corruption Risk Assessment in the areas of procurement for these institutions in Kumasi.
The workshop was jointly organised by GACC and Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency International (TI), with funding from STAR-Ghana Foundation.
Participants were drawn from the media, Judicial Service and the Ministries of Health and Education.
SDG3
The aim was to create anti-corruption voices on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals three, four and 16, with the objective of reducing corruption and promoting peaceful, just and strong institutions for sustainable development.
It was also to help increase access to justice, as well as effectiveness, accountability and inclusiveness in these institutions.
Madam Djabatey mentioned bribery, extortion, illegal payment, procurement fraud, procuring shoddy goods and services, absenteeism, academic cheating and unfair adjudication of cases as some of the major concerns in the health, education and judicial sectors.
She stressed the need to set up complaints’ units in these institutions; focus on the need to curb political interference; and the need to allow the institutions to focus on their core mandates.
She said the Judicial Service must impose bold and stiffer punishment on judges who take bribes during adjudication of cases and teachers must be strictly monitored.
Closing loopholes
Beauty Emefa Narteh, executive secretary of GACC, said about 70 per cent of government’s budget goes into public procurement, adding that it is a vulnerable area where people take advantage to steal.
She said awareness creation and strict preventive measures as well as enforcement are crucial in the fight against corruption in the country.
Credit: GNA
