Social Science researchers have identified that the staggering cost of running for political office in Ghana and unregulated party financing are among the root causes of deep-seated corruption in the country.
The other causes include weak oversight supervision and the creeping normalisation of corruption among the citizenry, where Ghanaians openly discuss either the distribution or receipt of ‘election gifts'.
This was disclosed at a roundtable discussion on “Rethinking Ghana’s Anti-Corruption Strategies: A decade’s trend analysis of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI)”, organised by the Ghana integrity Initiative (GII), the local office of global orgainisation, Transparency International (TI).
Participants, panellists and facilitators at the event that was held on Monday, January 31, 2022, also adduced the varying reasons for Ghana’s stagnation on the CPI ranking.
A decade’s trend analysis of Ghana’s score on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) shows that the country is stagnating on the ranking and making no progress in the fight against corruption.
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Ghana scored 43 over 100 on the Transparency International 2021 CPI released last week.
cost of vying for political office in the country, unregulated campaign financing
Ghana’s score places it ninth, along with Senegal, out of 49 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries on the 2021 CPI index.
Presenting a paper on the theme to set the tone for discussions, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Governance, Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante, said a study showed that in 2018, it cost about $85,000 (about GHS500,000 million) to contest party elections.
In 2020, a review of that study showed that the amount had shot up to between GH¢2 million and GH¢5 million.
For instance, in some constituencies in the country, such as Dome/Kwabenya, constituents openly received GH¢500, television sets or fridges and life insurance cover, worth about GH¢10,000, from political party contestants.
This means when the politicians come to power, they have to recoup of all such resources.
Dr Asante said to make headway in the fight against corruption, there was the need for a review of the laws regulating political campaign financing.
The National Democratic Congress NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for South Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, corroborated Dr Pumpuni-Asante’s assertions and said the figures quoted were conservative.
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He said depending on the constituency, a candidate could spend much more.
For instance, in a constituency that was the ‘World Bank’ of a party with high stakes, a candidate was bound to spend more, while in others where the stakes were low, less, he said.
Mr Ablakwa advocated integrity on the part of public office holders, as well as a rigorous system of vetting candidates by the citizenry for them to be sure about the integrity of their duty bearers in relation to public resources.
A Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, stressed the commitment of the government to the fight against corruption by outlining the laws passed and other efforts in the anti-corruption campaign.
Key among the laws were the Right to Information Law, the Witness Protection Law, the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, 2020, which has changed corruption from a misdemeanour to a felony, and several laws pertaining to public financial administration, he said.
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Additional files by Daily Graphic