I never said Mahama was going to launch Integrity Awards – Batidam

Presidential Advisor on Corruption, Mr. Daniel Batidam, has clarified comments he said were misconstrued to mean that President John Mahama will soon launch Integrity Awards.

The presidency was assigned the responsibility of instituting an Integrity Awards scheme by the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP), he explained.

Mr. Batidam said his announcement that “the president and his office have been charged to also see how we can come up with criteria to be able to acknowledge people who are committed to upholding integrity,” has been misconstrued.

“People are calling me and asking me when the president is going to launch the Integrity Awards but that is not what I talked about,” he asserted.

He stressed that the NACAP tasked the presidency to “take steps to ensure that we can institute Integrity Awards in order to recognize officials, not only public officials, they can private officials, who have tried to do their work with integrity.”

The Presidential Advisor said this was necessary because the fight against corruption had focused too much on investigations and prosecutions.

It is time to focus on persons both in public and private enterprises and reward them for doing their work with integrity.

Former Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short, praised the proposal, saying it was important to celebrate honesty.

“Whilst we are fighting corruption, it is important to reward those who have demonstrate integrity and honesty,” he stated.

The challenge with the proposal, however, he observed, is the criteria that would be used to identify those who have proved to be honest and incorruptible.

Mr. Batidam could not explain the modalities of the awards scheme to be instituted.

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