The Executive Director, Centre for Democratic Development, Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, said the growing normalisation and acceptance of ‘protocol’ list in the system forms part of corruption, affecting the string of development in the country.
“Protocol has become a small backdoor inception to the rule of law and is beginning to emerge increasingly in society, where the allocation of scarce public resources be it jobs or contracts is done without regard to transparent, competitive and democratic processes”, he asserted.
Prof Prempeh said this at a stakeholders’ forum on the theme: “Civil Society and the Fight Against Corruption: Emerging Lessons and Good Practices”, in Accra.
The event was organised by Star Ghana Foundation in collaboration with Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme, Strengthening Action Against Corruption, Ghana, and the European Union.
He said despite the empowerment of the Auditor General Department, the establishment of the Special Prosecutor Office and other Anti-Corruption institutions, there was still more effort to be done in the fight against corrupt practices.
The Professor noted that the country had be engulfed in corrupt activities in most institutions and organisations, stressing that there was the need for all hands to on deck to address the menace and pave way for other developmental projects.
Touching on the country’s successes in fighting corruption, Prof Prempeh said the increasing collaboration among Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) had contributed immensely to the fight against corruption.
He said the practice of investigative Journalisms had also contributed to the fight against corruption, where individuals caught in corrupt practices were arrested, gone through trials and jailed to serve as deterrent to others.
On lessons to be learnt, Professor Prempeh, admonished civil society to go beyond talking to each other, to a more systematic process by devising innovative ways to ignite public opinion and ensure public participation in the fight against corruption.
Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, the Governing Council Chair, Star Ghana Foundation, said the Foundation in October, 2017, launched an Anti-Corruption call to enhance the effectiveness of citizens’ actions against corruption through the provision of grants and technical support and brokering of relationships between stakeholders.
