Participants: Undue delays in providing public services breed corruption

Participants at a stakeholders forum on, ‘Enhancing public accountability and environmental governance’ have urged state institutions to urgently minimise the delays associated with rendering public services because it is a major source of corruption.

They explained that patrons of the services who had challenges with the waiting time tended to pay their way through to facilitate the processes but to the detriment of those who did not have the means to do likewise.

“To end this corruption the authorities must identify all the loopholes, which create opportunities for a few and retard progress,” they stressed.

The forum, organised by La Dadekotopon Municipal Directorate of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) with support from the Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), was to empower community members to demand for accountability from duty bearers to enable them to report all acts of corruption to appropriate authorities.

The forum forms part of the Commission’s Anti-Corruption, Rule of Law and Accountability Programme (ARAP) and the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) initiatives funded by the European Union (EU), targeted at reducing corruption and improving accountability, probity, transparency and compliance of the citizenry to the Rule of Law.

The participants also called for innovative measures, including naming and shaming campaign,and speedy prosecution to make corruption unattractive to the citizenry.

 Evelyn Gyima, a Senior Investigator at the Greater Accra Regional office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ), however, urged the participants to take advantage of anti-corruption laws to report offenders.

“It will be impossible to investigate and prosecute offenders without requisite information from those with knowledge and skills on their activities since institutions that have been set up cannot function in isolation.

 Odotei Sowah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for La Dadekotopon Constituency, said corruption was a canker, which retrogressed national development and even though the phenomenon existed across the world, with strong and workable institutions the canker could be minimised.

Gloria Kudo, the Municipal Director of NCCE for LaDMA, observed that the Commission would ensure all recommendations from such programmes were compiled and forwarded to appropriate authorities for necessary actions. -gna.org