Corruption: Ghana losing Ghs 13.8 billion annually
Ghana is estimated to be losing some Ghs 13.8 billion ($3 billion) annually through corruption-related activities.
The estimated amount according to the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Richard Quayson, and as contained in a presentation on corruption by tax consultant Dr Ali-Nakyea, represents more than 300 percent of the country’s 2016 annual budget estimates.
In his presentation, Dr Ali-Nakyea posited that a research report on the cost of education and health for instance, by a consortium comprising Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), and SEND-Ghana revealed that about 30 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost to corruption, as 70 percent of Ghanaians have attested to experiencing corruption in education and health.
According to him, the Country Director SEND-Ghana, Mr. George Osei-Bimpeh – presenting the research findings on the cost and impact of corruption on the education and health sector in Ghana, indicated that approximately 52 percent of Ghanaians have paid bribes, were asked to pay bribes, or have collected a bribe in the education and health sectors.
On the continent, the Global Corruption Barometer in 2018 found more than one in four people on the African continent paid bribes for public services.
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Corruption, Dr Ali-Nakyea in his presentation quoting Dr. Andrew Tchie, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), stated that despite the growth of democracy and the establishment of several western structured anti-corruption institutions models, continues to undermine governance processes and amounts annually to over $50 billion through illicit flows and $148 billion in corruption losses globally.
Ghana, in the 2020 Corruption Perception index by Transparency International ranked 75th and scored 51.9% and 49% in the World Bank’s (2016) Worldwide Governance Indicators.
Also, according to the 2017 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), Ghana ranks in the top 10 highest scoring countries (8 out of 54) with a score of 65.0 (out of 100.0) in overall governance.
In the last 10 years, however, it is also the eighth-most deteriorated country on the continent in overall governance, having declined by -1.5 points during this period.
Making a case for the causes of corruption in his presentation, Dr Ali-Nakyea noted that the causes for corruption in respect of a survey conducted by the IEA in 2015 included; Get rich quick (23.9%), Greed and Selfishness (21.9%), and Low salaries (20.4%).
“Other causes include poor technological infrastructure, weak institutions, undermining of institutions by politicians, lack of political will, poor ethical standards, lack of accountability, social and cultural norms, and lack of effective corruption reporting system,” he stated.
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According to Dr Ali-Nakyea, the government must address corruption by bolstering anti-corruption institutions, reforming judiciaries, and addressing poor governance or risk indirectly weakening its long-term national security agendas as well as continue to lose billions of cedis.
Speaking on the way forward, Dr Ali-Nakyea noted that there is no shortage of laws to regulate corruption in the economy citing the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915), the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), the Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720) and the Public Accounts Committee under article 103 of the Constitution as instances.
He stated that the strategies to adopt to mitigate corruption are not exhaustive however, to curb the menace and make great strides as well as block leakages in the economy the following must be encouraged:
- Enforcement and implementation of the existing laws.
- Investment in technology for tracing and tracking corruption and corruption-related activities.
- Empowering of the various Anti-Corruption agencies and Institutions in such a manner that does not encourage political interference.
- Implementing recommendations of the Auditor-General, Public Accounts Committee and other stakeholder Institutions.
- Reducing human interference in the functions of the anti-corruption institutions and bodies.
