Group advocates amendment of law on corruption

The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has initiated a programme to increase advocacy by civil society to amend the country’s laws on corruption to make them more punitive.

It said despite the fact that there were a number of laws to deal with bribery and corruption, Section 239 of the Criminal Code of 1969 considers corruption as mere misdemeanour, a description which the coalition claimed was not punitive enough.

Project

The GACC has, therefore, begun a four-year project dubbed: ‘Accountable democracy institutions and systems strengthening project’ to help fine-tune a draft amendment proposal to help minimise corruption in the country.

The four-year project is also to increase documentation and exposure of corruption through civil society reporting mechanisms.

A research officer with the GACC, Mr Bright Sowu, told civil society groups at Nkawie in the Atwima Nwabiagya District in the Ashanti Region to help fight the canker, since politicians could not be relied upon to deal with issues on corruption.

He noted that the fight against corruption by successive governments and political leaders had not yielded the desired results and that it was time civil society groups collaborated to let their voices be heard on the need to amend the law on corruption.

Sensitisation

The GACC, in collaboration with the USAID, is expected to embark on a sensitisation tour of some 50 selected districts in the country to firm up the draft proposal to be submitted to the appropriate authorities for the amendment process to begin.

“Laws without punitive clauses are just pieces of advice and could easily be ignored,” Mr Sowu told participants.

So far, various electronic platforms have been created by the GACC to enable the public to report corrupt practices. It is also providing legal assistance for persons who may have been dismissed for exposing corrupt officials at their workplaces.