Bolgatanga, May 20, GNA – The Social Enterprise Development Foundation for West Africa (SEND-GHANA), a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has advocated the strengthening and legislative reviews to help fight corruption to promote development.
The NGO observed that Ghana has enacted lots of anti-corruption laws and regulations that could effectively deal with issues of corruption and corrupt practices.
However, the institutions mandated to carry out these responsibilities were very weak and under resourced.
They therefore called on government to resource anti-corruption institutions, especially Office of the Special Prosecutor, to enable them to function effectively and implement the anti-corruption legislation that would ensure strict enforcement and compliance with the rule of law.
Mr Mumuni Mohammed, the Upper East Regional Programmes Manager of SEND-GHANA made this advocacy in an interview with Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening (ADISS) project.
The four year project, which seeks to increase the capacity of Civil Society organisations to apply pressure on policy makers and institutions with the aim of reducing corruption in Ghana, is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (UASID).
The anti-corruption project, which started in 2014, is being implemented by a consortium of three anti-corruption organisations including; the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and SEND GHANA.
Mr Mohammed explained that since the last four years, the project has created awareness in stakeholders and institutions on the menace of corruption on the sustainable development goals and how each could contribute to ending it.
He said due to the intervention, there was an increase in the number of corrupt cases reported to CHRAJ for investigations and indicated that there were documents to support such claims adding that the project has proposed measures to address specific issues.
The Programmes Manager explained that the programme, which brought together representatives from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), CSOs, staff of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, Persons with Disabilities among others was to map out measures to sustain the gains made from the implementation of the project which ends this year.
Mr Mohammed called on the various stakeholders to increase sensitisation drive on issues of corruption at their various platforms and admonished the Municipal and District Assemblies to mainstream issues of corruption into their medium term development plans.
He further charged the Assemblies and government to implement the Anti-corruption Action plan in order to reduce corruption for sustainable development.
Dr Bernard My-Issah, the Acting Bolgatanga Municipal Coordinating Director explained that for the country to successfully fight issues of corruption, the educational system of the country must be reviewed and corruption made a course subject at the basic level.
He said when the children who were the future leaders of the country were imbibed with values of patriotism and selflessness,they would have a new orientation that would make them dislike corruption.
GNA
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