Audio By Carbonatix
Governance expert Prof. Henry Kwasi Prempeh has expressed worry about an increasing Ghanaian numbness to corruption.
He said Ghanaians appear to have made excuses for which kind of corruption is really corruption.
"We have many, many classifications of what is corruption", the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) said on the Joy FM Super Morning Show Tuesday.
Some excusable forms of corruption among Ghanaians are monies given to police officers in traffic to ignore infractions of road traffic regulations.
In an attempt to stress how dangerous these classifications can be in weakening a nation's psyche towards wrong, he explained that a sign of great corruption is bribing police officers.
"We think the money is small...when you allow that kind of visible corruption to go on unchecked it normalises it," he stressed ahead of the Kronti ne Akwamu Lecture, slated Thursday 30th August, 2018.
The CDD Executive Director said there is nothing that most symbolizes a functioning government than the visible presence of a police officer. Giving him a bribe, is, therefore, bribing the entire government.
"If you can corrupt the police, you can corrupt pretty much everybody", he said and pointed to this as 'the beginning of sliding down a slippery slope to the point where it is getting out of hand'.
Prof. Prempeh who maintains an active presence on social media also expressed worry about what he observed as a legalistic attitude towards corruption.
"When you make an allegation of corruption, you are met with the lawyer's response, 'where is the evidence' as if we are in the courtroom.
"When the people who are witnesses to the corrupt act, put you to the burden of coming up with evidence, you know you are not going to get anywhere in fighting corruption," he noted.
Prof. Prempeh said instead of asking for evidence of corruption, the measure of corruption should be whether a government project or programme offers value for money.
"What fails the value for money test, also likely fails the corruption test. If you approach it from that angle, you will catch a lot of people without being met with all this show-me-the-evidence talk".
Latest Stories
-
Critics of Mbappe have gone ‘too far’, says Dembele
1 hour -
Refrain from unauthorised fiat currency wallet services – BoG to banks, electronic money issuers
2 hours -
Kofi Matthew warns TEIN-UCC against allowing their potential to be exploited for others’ personal battles
2 hours -
Ghana, EU seek closer cooperation on export compliance and market access
2 hours -
KNUST Nkabom Collaborative opens pitch session to support young agripreneurs with business funding
5 hours -
Former Foreign Affairs minister and Ex-ECOWAS Commission President James Victor Gbeho dies at 91
6 hours -
Illegal dumpsite washed into Weija Lake after floods, raising public health fears
6 hours -
NACOC partners GJA to combat substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in Ghana
6 hours -
Football’s greatest legends prepare for their final World Cup
6 hours -
Sammi Awuku questions whether GTA board chair Gertrude Donkor meets Tourism Act private sector requirement
6 hours -
Providence turns red, gold and green as Tribe Culturefest ignites Ghana’s World Cup fever
6 hours -
Asantehene to attend tribe Culturefest’s fan festival at Toronto’s Sankofa Square
6 hours -
Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo resigns from the Council of State
7 hours -
Health workers struggle to contain Ebola in Congo camps as distrust grows
8 hours -
Richie Mensah unveils ‘The Octave’ as latest addition to Lynx Electronics family
8 hours