The programs manager at Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mrs Mary Awelana Addah has charged Ghanaians to be bold to report cases of corruption and suspected acts of corruption within their localities without any fear of victimization.
According to her, corruption has become so adaptive that it grows and changes alongside the world systems and therefore needs to be tackled head-on. This she said can only be done if citizens are willing to report cases.
While encouraging citizens to develop an interest in reporting people who are involved in corrupt practices, Mrs Awelana explained that corruption does not occur only amongst politicians and people in authority but everywhere in society.
She expressed worry over how corruption as was known does no longer happen in the “dark” but is now practised in the open.
“Corruption happens everywhere, corruption involves everyone. It’s not only in the political offices or public institutions that corruption happens, it happens even in our homes, churches and schools. Corruption, as we all know, do happen in the dark is no longer so, people do corruption in our eyes, in broad daylight. The most worrying of it is that corruption is now adaptive, as the world changes, its acts also change. I am told even now people take bribes through MoMo on the road, so you see technology, corruption also moves with technology”.
Mrs Awelana was speaking at a stakeholder engagement in Tamale organized by Ghana Integrity Initiative together with Ghana Developing Communities Association and SEND-Ghana to empower citizens to be able to demand accountability from their leaders.
Citizens she said should at all-time demand accountability from authority both from the local assemblies and central government and report same to the appropriate institutions if they have any suspicions.
She added that the whistleblowers’ act protects every citizen who reports corrupt cases; therefore people should not be scared to blow the whistle.
On his part, the Executive Director of Ghana Developing Communities Association, Alhaji Osman Abdel-Rahaman whose outfit conducted research on the level of corruption in five District Assemblies in the Northern region noted corruption at the local level is on the rise in recent times. The situation he said needs everyone on board to be able to tackle.
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