The Auditor General has called for a total decentralization of the governance structure of the country if Ghana is to win the fight against corruption.

Speaking at this year’s Jurist Confab of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Coast, the Auditor General bemoaned how the Public sector is too centralized impeding the fight against corruption.

Daniel Domelovo is calling for a change in the current structure to enable the citizenry at the grassroots track the progress of work on government projects and blow the whistle when there are acts of corruption.

“The public service is too centralized and does not help in the fight against corruption. To talk about a meaningful physical decentralization, it must be geographical.

“It will make sense to the people of Cape Coast when you say that when you finish constructing the road, go to the assembly and get paid. Interestingly, we have the budget officer, the finance officer here in the Assembly but in Ghana if you are not in Accra, you are not competent,” he said.

The Auditor General also called on Ghanaians not to expect any miracle in the fight against corruption if it is only the President they are looking up to cause the needed change.

According to Daniel Domelevo, religious groups and academic institutions to start the fight from their fold and not leave the fight to the president and the political representatives alone.

He believes the fight against corruption would be meaningless and would remain mere rhetoric should we look up to the president alone.

“Leadership as not in the president only. Most of us here are leaders and the fight should start with us. The leadership of the University should take up the challenge and start fighting corruption here. Students should not get good grades because they pay money to lecturers or they sleep with lecturers for grades.”

“Let us take the challenge and start fighting. If we are only waiting for one man called ‘His ‘Excellency’ who is going to win the war for us, I think it should elude us,” he asserted.

Director of CDD Ghana, Prof. H Kwasi Prempeh, advocated a change in the laws because he believes the current legal dispensation does not allow for an effective fight against corruption.

“Criminal prosecution if limited I this country because it comes after the deed is done. It is backward looking. It is putting a fire extinguisher in the house after the deed is done. It often comes after the crime has been committed and the money has even escaped the jurisdiction,” he added.

The Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Coast, Mr. Kujo E. McDave called for the strengthening of structures to make the fight against corruption is easier.

Other speakers at the Jurist Confab were Mr. Kofi Bentil, Vice President of Imani Ghana, Sir Dennis Domnic Adjei, Justice of the Court of Appeal and Director, Judicial Training Institute and Prof. Letlhokwa George Mpedi, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.