The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) says winning the fight against corruption requires active public participation, especially citizens’ willingness to report all forms of graft.
According to the Coalition, the general lack of interest in reporting corruption and corruption-related offences to the appropriate state institutions continued to fuel the rise in graft across the country.
Ms. Dorcas Afum Tenkorang, Assistant Programmes Officer at GACC, noted that combating corruption was a collective national duty that began with individuals deciding to speak up and report wrongdoing.
She made the call at a stakeholder forum on the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) law and related anti-corruption frameworks, held at Oforikrom in the Oforikrom Municipality.
The forum formed part of the Participation, Accountability, and Integrity for a Resilient Democracy (PAIReD) programme, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
The initiative is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Finance.
Participants from state institutions, civil society organisations, youth and women groups, and the disability community, were taken through the mandate and legal frameworks governing the OSP.
They also discussed the rising incidence of corruption in Ghana and the pivotal role of citizens in tackling it.
Ms. Tenkorang underscored the need for citizens to report, resist, and reject all forms of corruption to make the practice unattractive.
The fight, she said, must begin at the individual level by refusing to engage in corrupt acts and exposing those who do.
She emphasised the importance of cultivating integrity in children both at home and in school, proposing that integrity and anti-corruption values be deliberately incorporated into the school curriculum.
”We have a responsibility as parents and teachers to train children to eschew corruption, so it becomes a natural part of them as they grow,” she said.
Ms. Tenkorang urged parents and guardians to lead by example through honesty and uprightness, serving as role models for their children.
She encouraged participants to spread the anti-corruption message within their communities as part of their contribution to the national fight.
Madam Gertrude Elleamoh, Technical Advisor at GIZ, underscored the need for deliberate efforts to instill values such as honesty and integrity in children as a long-term strategy to curb corruption.
She urged participants to become worthy ambassadors in the fight against corruption, noting that the menace erodes national gains and stifles development.
GNA
