Ghana’s ‘performance in corruption fight dubious’ – NPP

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has described as dubious attempts by the Mahama-led administration to portray a recent corruption report to mean that Ghana performed better in the fight against corruption.

The party argues that the claims cannot be true in the wake of the many corruption scandals that has hit the Mahama-led administration citing “GYEEDA, Woyome, SADA, Subah, Waterville and recently Smarttys bus rebranding saga.”

A latest Corruption Perception Index ranked Ghana 56th out of 168 countries in the world with a score of 47.
The figure shows a slight improvement in the fight against corruption in the sub-region as against figures from previous year. It further singled out Ghana and some African countries to have inched up in the fight against corruption in the sub-region.

Government welcomed the report and described it as an “enviable feat,” but the NPP thinks otherwise.

The NPP argues that the figure in the corruption perception index shows that Ghana dropped as compared to figures from previous years.

A statement signed by Director of Communications of the NPP, Nana Akomea said “one basis for the government’s fantasy is that it had placed 56 out of 168 countries and placed 7th in Africa. But the government is not able to say if these positions amount to improvement, or not. In 2008, Ghana ranked 67 but out of a bigger sample of 180 countries. Is 56th position out of 167 countries in 2015 better or worse than 67th position out of 180 countries in 2008? The stark reality is that Ghana actually dropped from a score of 48 out of 100 in 2014, to a score of 47 out of 100 in 2015,” the statement added.

Nana Akomea said attempts to portray the country as one that is making positive impact in the fight against corruption “amounts to a fantasy, a mere fiddling while Ghana burns from corruption and a poor attempt by President Mahama’s government to tickle itself and laugh.”

The NPP further stated that anti-corruption campaigners including investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Martin Amid and Occupy Ghana should rather be commended for fighting against shady activities in the country.

“Government also seems happy about its claim that Ghana and Senegal have been mentioned as making progress in the fight against corruption in Africa. This claim is also dubious. Ghana was mentioned in terms of increased civil society and individual’s activism in anti-corruption activities. This has nothing to do with government. The credit for this belongs to civil activists like Occupy Ghana and Lmani Ghana and to individuals such as Martin Amidu and Anas Aremeyaw Anas,” he added.