Political parties Act must be enforced in corruption fight – – GACC Report

A survey conducted by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has revealed that the citizenry are in support of strict enforcement of the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574) to aid in the fight against corruption.

The Act states that political parties must disclose their sources of funding in their political activities.

GACC in its report dubbed: ‘Anti-Corruption Manifesto’ said political parties must consider the implementation of the Act in their manifestos to augment the fight against corruption.

Jacob  Ahuno, Programmes Officer of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), who highlighted some aspects of the report during a press briefing in Accra, noted that the citizenry proposed that they wanted the next government to ensure that the enforcement of the Political Parties Act which stipulated under Section 21 that political parties should disclose their funding sources.

“If you check with the Electoral Commission, for the past 15 years not even one political party has submitted its financial report in full, when we say in full, we mean, for every year tells you that the law is not fully enforced.

“Citizens are also asking for Act 574 which is again a Political Parties Act, to be amended to include disclosure of funding sources for candidates contesting presidential, parliamentary and local level elections, so we need to know who is funding the political parties.

“As of now, it is not included in the law and the citizenry are calling for its inclusion since part of the Anti-Corruption Manifesto also indicated that Ghanaians demand continuity in projects, programmes and social interventions by successive governments,” Mr Ahuno intimated.

He pointed out that Ghanaians hold the view that the disinterest to continue projects of the former administration stemmed from a desire to re-award contracts to service providers that the ruling government favoured.

Mr Ahuno stressed that the citizenry are now proposing that the Presidential Transition Act 845 should be amended to include ongoing infrastructure,  the law should give time limits for the new government to review and publish their plans for continuing the project.

He intimated that should the government decide to change service provider or make any other significant changes, it must be done within time limit with explanations, must be published, so people can know why they have decided to change service provider and query them if need be. -citinewsroom.com