Citizenry encouraged not to relent in corruption fight

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has encouraged the citizenry  to stand up against all forms of bribery and corruption in the society.

It noted that bribery and corruption is a ‘societal canker’ and must be tackled with all the force that the nation could muster since the government alone could not fight the canker which was the ‘moral responsibility’ of the citizenry to join the fight.

 Richmond Okoaben-Mensah, the Ablekuma North Municipal Director of the commission made the call at an interaction with staff of the Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly in Accra on a programme dubbed: ‘Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption’ (ARAP).

 ARAP, which is a joint initiative between the Government of Ghana and the European Union (EU) was on the theme: ‘Citizens for Transparency and Accountability’, organised by the NCCE in collaboration with various stakeholders.

Mr Okoaben-Mensah, mentioned extreme poverty, low salaries, greed, dishonesty, lack of ethical standards, lack of code of conduct, weak laws, no enforcement of existing ones and  ‘get rich quick attitude’ of the citizenry as some of the causes of corruption in the society.

He noted that the effects of corruption were under development, impediment in business growth, escalation of cost of business and putting reputation at risk and admonished the residents to ensure that every project or programme of the assembly were ‘community-driven’ and should not be undertaken outside the assembly’s planned activities.

“This is in line with the decentralisation policy of the government and the assemblies, which requires preparation and implementation of development plans to ensure the overall development of their respective areas.

“To achieve the status of a decentralised public administrative system, a needs assessment must be collated from stakeholders, the information must form the basis for development projects and programmes as inputs into the medium term development plan and the annual action plan of the assembly.

“I encourage stakeholders to take ownership of every project and programme being undertaken by the assembly or central government based on inputs from them,” Mr Okoaben-Mensah stressed.  –GNA