The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International has counseled government and the people of Ghana to take seriously, the nation\u2019s ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).<\/p>\n
Ghana moved two places from 63rd in 2013 to 61st<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>in 2014 out of the 175 countries which were surveyed worldwide.<\/p>\n Despite this marginal improvement in the 2014 ranking, the GII is of the view that the nation must not rest until corruption is drastically reduced or eradicated if possible.<\/p>\n GII\u2019s Mary Addah on Eyewitness News<\/strong> emphasized that CPI\u2019s score \u201cis an aggregate of various credible researches which have been conducted over the past year and so Ghana\u2019s aggregate score was done on eight different researches so this is not just the transparency international conjecturing figures.\u201d<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”irF8P1kv7yHMmJOE7EwK7b25lkyzURzt”]According to him, the data which informed the rankings are credible information acquired from the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other recognized think tanks and research houses across the globe.<\/p>\n \u201cSo these are results we should take seriously and try as much as possible as a country to work towards improving our score to become the first in Africa,\u201d she stressed.<\/p>\n Limiting the ranking to Africa, Mary Addah disclosed in 2013, Ghana was 6th in Africa but dropped to the 8th position in 2014.<\/p>\n This, she said is indicative that corruption is still a real challenge in Ghana and very little has been done in the fight against corruption.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the latest Afrobarometer survey said majority of Ghanaians did not trust government institutions \u00a0and the Presidency because of corruption.<\/p>\n The Police ranked highest among<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the most corrupt public institutions surveyed, a claim they have rejected vehemently<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n She subsequently advised that government and other relevant authorities must begin take concrete steps to reduce the canker from the society.<\/p>\n Madam Addah said state institutions and government officials who insist that corruption is just a perception are wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Ghana, what our perceptions are and what our experiences are about corruption are almost the same,\u201d she argued.<\/p>\n She pointed out that perceptions about corruption are increasing daily since citizens do not see concrete actions being taken to make corruption unattractive.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we see impunity on the part of public office holders \u2013 when it comes to issues of corruption, people do what they want and go scot free; then the perception and the reality of the situation will merge,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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