Private Legal practitioner, Ace Ankomah has said that Ghana needs a Bribery and Corruption Act, and is recommending that all the anti-corruption legislations which are scattered in the nation’s statutory books must be put together into one Act.
“One of the main problems has been that these laws are scattered…It is time to have a Bribery and Corruption Act. We must pull all of these into one piece of legislation and then everybody knows where it is,” he advised.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Z35M7YE8EYEiDwtkYGjevrAfcYgOS7rc”]According to the former law lecturer, the country does not need any new laws to fight corruption because there are existing laws when applied to the letter, can rid the nation of corruption.
The issue of corruption has become topical in recent years following some major scandals which rocked the nation.
The Mahama-led government has come under fire for its seeming indifference to numerous calls from citizens for persons indicted in such corruption cases to be prosecuted.
But the President, John Mahama has called on Ghanaians to help his government tackle the social canker.
Former boss of the GYEEDA Abuga Pele and another, Philip Asibit are standing trial in the infamous corruption scandal at the Authority.
Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, Ace Ankomah disclosed that Ghana has one of the most advanced anti-corruption legislation in the world.
“We have some of the most advanced anti-corruption legislation on planet earth passed in 1977 and 1979 which have remained black letters on our dusty statute books that nobody refers to and nobody applies and that is what I call the joke,” he remarked.
He explained that although the laws exist, “it is time to harmonize these things and into one uniform anti corruption legislation.”
Mr. Ankomah was however pessimistic that with the posturing of some government officials, his advised will be not heeded to.
“Looking at some of the attitudes of some of the government people, I don’t think they are ready to listen…” he said.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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