Police, presidency, parliament 'win' gold, silver, bronze in CDD corruption survey

GSS, partners release maiden corruption report

Ghana drops on 2021 Corruption Perception Index

Government serially accused of failing to fight corruption

The Police, Presidency and Parliament are the three most corrupt public institutions according to a recent corruption perception survey.

The Afrobarometer study was conducted by the policy think tank, the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).


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The question posed to respondents was: "how many of the following people do you think are involved in corruption, or haven't you heard enough about them to say?"

65% of the respondents answered that "most/all" police officers were corrupt. Whiles 31% answered that only some police are corrupt.

With respect to the presidency and Parliament, 55% and 54% respectively stated that they were mostly corrupt, while 40% and 42% respectively said persons in the two institutions were partly corrupt.

Completing the top ten in descending order were the following: "Judges and magistrates, tax officials, Electoral Commission, civil Servants, MMDCEs, business executives and Assembly men and women."

The other five groups completing the list are traditional leaders, religious leaders, public media, private media and non-governmental organizations - from 11th to 15th spot respectively.

Per the report, three-quarters of respondents (77%) believed that corruption has increased with a mere 6% holding the view that corruption is reducing. During the last survey in 2019, 53% of respondents said corruption was increasing.

About the Corruption in Ghana survey – GNA report

Just last week, a maiden national survey, titled: “Corruption in Ghana – people’s experiences and views” reported that over 17.4 million bribes were paid within the space of a year, 2021. 

The survey was conducted by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

It collected evidence-based information from 15,000 households across the country involving people who were 18 years and older on the forms of corruption affecting the population of Ghana. 

This is to determine the prevalence of the situation and its prevailing typologies and give benchmark indicators that can be used to inform relevant policies to curb administrative corruption in various public institutions in the country. 

Apart from the cash payment, which contributed 84.8 per cent of the forms of bribes paid, 13.3 per cent of the bribes paid were food and drinks; 9.7 per cent, in exchange for other services; 5 per cent for valuables, and 2.2 per cent for animals. 

The bribes were paid by 33.6 per cent of citizens to speed up procedures; 15.8 per cent, as a sign of appreciation; 13.8 per cent, to avoid the payment of the fine; 10.8 per cent to avoid problems, and 3.1 per cent, to avoid the cancellation of public utilities.

Ghana drops on Corruption Perception ranking

According to the 2021 edition of the annual corruption ranking chart by Transparency International, Ghana ranked 73rd out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perception Index, CPI, report released on April 4.

“Ghana’s current performance is still below 50 which is the expected average, thus leaves much to be desired,” the report noted.

Out of 49 African countries ranked, Ghana placed 9th with Senegal, each bagging a score of 43.

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SARA/PEN