The Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Awelana Addah, says a lot more could have been done to fight against corruption.

According to her, when the late President John Atta-Mills was in power, he went to the port and one of the complaints was that, all the things they were doing were discounted by the officials at the port.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on June 15, she stated that the lack of investigations and appropriate sanctions for such misconduct, together with politicisation and protection of individuals with political connections who exploit their positions for personal gain, undermines efforts to combat corruption effectively.

“And because we do not give proper investigations and sanctions accompanying some of these, but then we see the excessive politicization and protecting persons who have political interest who have turned themselves into businessmen because, they have promoted the interests of the party and perhaps maybe funded them, then we cannot but say the president has done very little in the fight against corruption.”

Mrs Addah stated that there is a need to have a committed leadership who can prioritise and achieve results in the fight against corruption.

According to her, the laws must be activated to ensure that people are doing the right thing but if the right thing is not done, the appointed authorities must be held responsible.

“What we see is that, it is only the small fishes that are being accounted for but when it comes to the bigger issues such as the Cecelia Dapaah’s, the Labianca’s of our time and others and nothing is done, then we cannot say otherwise.”

“Civil society is talking per the evidence of what the president told us in his inaugural speech. He said he would use the Anas principle and he would not need much evidence to ensure that he fights corruption. What happened since then? That is the question the president should be asking himself."