All over the world, corruption is known for its enormous implications on government, institutions and individuals.
In the past, corruption is known to have invoked resentment among people thereby triggering the
toppling of many government in coup d'etat especially in Africa where most government are perceived to be corrupt.
Yet, we seem to be ignorant of the history of those government that were toppled in military coups.
Political corruption denotes the use of power by government officials for illegitimate personal gain.
Various forms corruption are known to exist ranging from bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism to patronage and embezzlement.
Elucidating few of these, bribery is a payment given personally to an official in exchange of his use of power or authority. it most often than not involves two individuals.
Nepotism means favoring of relatives and favoring close acquaintances(cronyism).
Embezzlement being filching of entrusted funds.
In the history of Ghana, corruption is known to be one of the main rationale behind the rise of military coups in relation to other significant factors. The National Liberation Council (N.L.C) that overthrew the Nkrumah's government led by E.K Kotoka on 24th February 1966 had economic hardships, mismanagement and corruption as one of its reasons for toppling the government. Likewise National Redemption Council(N.R.C) led by col. Ignatius K. Acheampong on January 13, 1972 and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (A.F.R.C) led by J.J. Rawlings.
From Wikipedia; since 2006, Ghana's score and ranking on the
Transparency International Corruption Index has improved, ranking higher than Italy and Brazil. She ranked 64th in 2012 tied with Lesotho.
Currently, it's no news that Ghana is experiencing economic hardships, mismanagement and corruption. Even before that, previous governments both the National Patriotic Party(N.P.P) and National Democratic Congress(N.D.C) is known to have engaged in corrupt activities.
Also cropping out are scandalous corrupt activities that is raging in the incumbent
government.
Some of these revealing activities are the fraudulent acts that were exposed by the investigative journalist Anas Amereyaw Anas in his documentary "Enemies of the nation|" at the Tema harbor.
Sub sequent to that are the saga erupting from the Ghana Youth Employment
and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (G.Y.E.E.D.A), Sahara Accelerated Development Authority (S.A.D.A), ISOFOTON and Subah Infosolutions relating to corruption at the top hierarchy of the institution.
The recent one which is more disturbing is the Victoria Hammah brouhaha that has being dubbed "vickieleaks of Ghana" in which the deputy minister was heard on a leaked secret tape saying she will not quit politics until she has gotten $1 million.
She was also heard traducing deputy minister of gender, children and social protection, Rachel Appoh, as a "loud, ugly, senseless and egoistic" woman who has been fighting her boss Nana Oye Lithur, wife of the presidents lawyer in the just ended election petition hearing.
Since then she has always being on the headlines of most media in the country.
Having said this, there was news from the Daily Guide that in 2011, the N.D.C
paid judgement debt running into several millions of cedis to Alfred Agbesi Woyome to which former attorney general Martin Amidu popularly known to be a vigilante consistently pursued against the case in court and won in the apex court of Ghana.
In my candid opinion, corruption stems from a number of factors. Among them are the lack of investigative reports from the media.
In this respect, I applaud Anas Amereyaw Anas for his brave efforts in fighting corruption with his investigative skills.
Additionally, serving as a source of corruption is lack of control from the government to which the civil service is so weak, bureaucratic process in the judiciary together with its lack of independence is crippling it in prosecuting those who flaunt the law, and the inability of government to protect whistle blowers.
Furthermore,is the weak accounting practices in our government ministries and institutions enabling individuals to carry out activities that inimical to the economic status of the country.
Others which include lack of information, in respect, citing the delayed legislation on the freedom of information bill in parliament and the negligence of exercising freedom of speech.
The consequence of this act is indeed enormous which continues to be augmented when more of it are engaged.
Prominent among them are undermining the democracy and good governance of a country by subverting formal process. It also reduce accountability and distorts representation in policy making thereby misrepresenting peoples views.
Additionally, it cripples government to finance budget expenditures thus deficit financing. This is so because a lot of revenue is lost through tax evasions by corrupt officials and individuals likewise institutions.
For instance, in Nigeria, more than $400 million was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999~Wikipedia
The case is not different from what we are witnessing here Ghana.
Besides, this insidious act causes inflation and reduced investment leading to reduced goods and services.
This is apparent in the increase in inflation from single digit to double digits.
We also have inferior infrastructure with substandard materials and so is reduced commitment from donor agencies because they believe that funds are diverted through other channels rather than its intended purpose.
For me, if only government would revise the red tape procedure in issuing permit and obtaining other documents to carry out simple tasks, at least the rate of corruption would decrease by some margin.
It is equally my hope that the media carries out its duties effectively and independently to uncover any act of corruption. This would in effect go a long way to reducing corruption in the country to some extent.
Strengthening the judicial system would also aid in the fight of corruption. Prosecuting offenders and speeding up the process in doing so, would probably help curb the menace.
Likewise formulating and implementing stringent policies by government to help fight the act that sometimes even cost the life of people, cost a nation millions and billions of money and undermines the integrity of the country.
There is an adage that says a piece of broom can easily be broken but a group of them is hard to even bend. So if the fight against corruption will be victorious it will be the efforts of you and I.