Forget about a corruption league table, fight corruption itself – Vitus Azeem to Special Prosecutor
Mr Vitus Azeem, an anti-graft activist on the issue of tackling corruption does not agree with the ranking of public institutions’ corruption perception but rather wants the Office of the Special Persecutor to chase corruption itself.
He indicated that such corruption perception index of institutions in Ghana are not taken seriously and will not yield the expected results.
“I think that having a corruption perception is not enough because anytime the Ghana Integrity Initiative releases its perception index, the government in power will say it is just perception.”
As far as corruption for the Special Prosecutor Office is concerned, Mr. Azeem said, “it is an issue of the Special Prosecutor actually pursuing serious allegation of corruption.”
“It is not enough to tell us that government institution A is highly corrupt or more corrupt than institution B but what have you done when you realized that it is highly corrupt?”
“So you need to go beyond just having a league table. You need to now identify the corruption acts, investigate them further and take action and that is what we expect of a Special Prosecutor and not just come out with a league,” he added.
Mr Azeem was responding to the revelation by the Special Prosecutor to commence a corruption perception index from January 2022 and the results will be published on 9th December every year.
“In a bid to avoid toxic deals and the prevalence of judgment debts and arbitration awards in the country, the Office of Special Prosecutor intends to carry out corruption risk assessments on all major government contracts, legislations, and draft legislations dating back to 2020,” the Special Prosecutor revealed.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
