The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has described recent corruption reports labelling the Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt institution as selective ranking.
According to him, the continuous labelling of the Service as the most “corrupt institution in the country only goes to feed the perception and damage the reputation of the Service as well as weaken the morale of its personnel.”
The response follows corruption reports in Ghana by the Ghana Statistical Service, (GSS), Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) and Centre for Democratic Development, labelling the Police Service as the most corrupt institution in the country.
Dr Dampare, in a signed statement,noted that the research was aimed at finding solutions to the country’s corruption-related problems, adding that the Service has long acknowledged that some of its personnel may be involved in some corrupt practices and the Service continued to implement measure to discourage such conduct.
“It would have been helpful if you had engaged us to take on board what is being done by the Service and incorporated this into your findings, ’’he added.
The IGP stated that the research did not cover some other public institutions which the public dealt with regularly, such as the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Audit Service, Parliamentary Service, Ghana National Fire Service, GamingCommission, Public media houses, National Disaster Management Organisation, Narcotic Control Commission, the AttorneyGeneral’s Department, the Registrar General’s Department among others.
“More importantly, a further scrutiny of the report shows that your two institutions, CHRAJ and GSS, were also not part of the research and we are wondering why you do not think they are also candidates for corruption investigation,considering that they also provide critical service to the public, ”he added.
Dr Dampare said attempts were also not made to verify and authenticate from any of the affected institutions the credibility of the information given them by the interviewees.
“From your research, definition of corruption is about the aggregate of those who paid bribes and those who were asked to pay but refused. This aggregate was used to compute the corruption prevalence rate,” he said.
He said the Service was interested in knowing the portion of those who paid bribes as against those who were asked but refused to pay and whether those who refused to pay were disadvantaged.
This, he explained, would enable the Service assess its mechanisms aimed at educating and empowering the public to resist attempts by any officer to engage in any corrupt practice.
Dr Dampare stated that the real risk that the research may have suffered from was a historically pervasive stereotyping of the Police Service.
“The Service has almost now become the default institution of choice for such research and has therefore encouraged a deep-seated public stereotyping over the years. This stereotyping may easily influence respondent choices and it is, therefore, fair to expect that you assess the validity of your findings,” he said.
“We also did not see any specific recommendation in the report and we find it surprising that a major research like this did not offer any recommendation and solution,” he added.
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI
