Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, National Security Advisor and former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces, has alleged that political biases by some state security workers make them compromise their work in order to sabotage the efforts of government. Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, the former military capo accused such individuals as one of the main reasons for corruption in the country. “When a government is in power, they pack these areas [state security agencies] with their cronies. So anybody who comes to power, we’ve got people there who are trying to sabotage what government is trying to do, it’s a fact,” he said. He suggested a need to de-politicise such agencies in order to curb the tide of corruption in the country. Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah also hinted that Ghana’s failure to tackle corruption is due to the nation’s inability to adhere strictly to the Constitution, adding that in the United States, “people are so different there, because the law works. The law gets you whether you are the president or what, the law deals with you.” He asserted that the state has to be more passionate about prosecuting individuals caught in such acts in order to serve as a deterrent to others. Florence Dennis, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition and a guest on the show disagreed to some extent about the political sabotage allegation. He rather saw it as a sabotage against the state. Mrs Dennis said the country needs “political will across board” and not just strong institutions in order to weed out corruption within the state institutions. She also suggested that the country should be more active in educating the public about corruption, especially children of school-going age since according to her, some research conducted showed that most pupils see nothing wrong with corruption. Mrs Dennis also averred that there was the need to find out about what happens to complaints raised by some clearing agents on the issue of bribery at the Tema Harbour. Story by Fidel Amoah/Myjoyonline.com