Food and Agriculture Minister, Fifi Kwetey, has described as garbage, a recent survey that ranked the Office of the President as the second most corrupt institution in Ghana.

The Ketu South Member of Parliament (MP) said on news analysis programme, Newsfile, on Joy FM and Joy News channel on Multi TV Saturday the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), who conducted the survey -- did not do due diligence in explaining the term 'Office of the President' to the 1,200 respondents it sampled.

"If you are a proper research agency, a proper think tank, what you do when you are seeking opinions relating to Office of the President is to first clarify...what the Office of the President is and on the back of that you can get accurate answers", he said.

Findings of IEA's public perception survey published recently put the police on the top spot as the institution perceived to be the most corrupt in the country. Twenty-three percent of all the 1,200 respondents thought that nearly all police officials are corrupt.

Following closely behind the Ghana Police Service is the Office of the President, under which institutions such as the Savanah Accelerated Development Agency (SADA) and the erstwhile Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) fall.

SADA and GYEEDA have both been hit by corruption scandals and allegations of financial malfeasance, mismanagement and over-invoicing.

About 19.2 percent of the respondents, according to the IEA, thought the Presidency was second most corrupt, beating tax officials and Members of Parliament, who received 15.4 and 15 percent respectively.

Since the publication of the findings, government has rejected the ranking and has challenged the IEA to provide credible proof of corruption at the Office of the President.

In a statement dismissing the public perception survey, Communications Minister Edward Omane Boamah said the IEA and other institutions cannot hide behind such surveys to create the impression that corruption is getting worse in the country.

Speaking on the findings of the survey on the Presidency, Fifi Kwetey said the IEA survey "amounts to what you call garbage in, and what you get is garbage out."

According to him, the presentation of the survey was malicious and designed to undermine President, John Mahama since he comes to mind when that institution is mentioned.

"Is IEA saying that John Mahama is the second most corrupt person in Ghana? This really is a poor job. It's a poor job done and that poor job is coming from they themselves", Fifi Kwetey observed.

Senior Research Fellow at IEA, Ransford Gyampoh, however, said Mr Kwetey's reaction to the survey was unfortunate.

"I am disappointed in the posturing of Fifi Kwetey and Felix [another panelist on the show]...When we talk about the Office of the President, we are talking also about the institutions attached to Presidency", he rebutted.

He said Mr Kwetey must read the methodology used for the survey before rubbishing the findings.

Dr Gyampoh warned that the posture of government and the likes of Fifi Kwetey will impede the fight against corruption in Ghana.

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