The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joe Ghartey, on Tuesday stirred an anti-corruption fervour when he charged Ghanaians to recognise that the fight against corruption required a national commitment and not just political will. "The battle against corruption is not my fight; it is our fight," he declared, and stressed that the person who gave a bribe was as guilty as the person who received it. Addressing the Meet-the-Press series in Accra, Mr Ghartey said although political will was important, it was only a sub-set of the national will. He said the government's preventive strategy in its anti-corruption campaign dictated that both the giver and the receiver of a bribe be targeted. Mr Ghartey said the government remained committed to the fight against corruption, saying that had been translated into the institution of appropriate measures. He explained that the country's anti-corruption strategy was three-prong and consisted of a domestic preventive strategy, a domestic curative strategy and an international strategy. "The domestic strategy is akin to a medical strategy. You try to prevent the disease and if, unfortunately, you cannot prevent it, then you cure it," he stated. He indicated that an important aspect of the preventive strategy was the institution of an early warning system of mechanisms and institutions that enabled early detection and said that underlined the mandate of the Office of Accountability. He said it was a fact of life that charges of corruption could only be prosecuted after the facts had been established, explaining that prosecutions were time consuming, costly, uncertain and could only be brought when evidence of corrupt conduct was available. The Attorney-General stated that public officers once recruited should be subjected to codes of conduct, financial disclosures, as well as appropriate disciplinary measures. He said the President had shown leadership by example and had publicly declared his commitment to anti-corruption moves. "He has not just talked; he has walked the talk; he has supervised the enactment of comprehensive anti-corruption legislation; he has set up, as part of the preventive mechanism, an Office of Accountability as an early warning system. He has also submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the AG stated. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, echoed the sentiments of the Attorney-General and stressed that corruption was an endemic problem that must be tackled by all. He cautioned against the politicisation of the issue, saying that would not solve the problem, and expressed the hope that with concerted effort, corruption could be reduced significantly. The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Mr Patrick Nomo, said there were strong indications that professional internal auditing systems were gaining roots in the public services of the country. He said the agency had developed tools in the form of internal auditing standards, manuals and programmes to guide staff and said templates had been designed to serve as guides for the preparation of internal audit charters, annual audit plans and quarterly reporting formats. Mr Nomo explained that those tools would serve as a basis for measuring the performance of the internal audit function. He added that appropriate collaboration had been pursued with organisations with similar objectives to build synergies and avoid duplications, adding that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the Ghana Audit Service that provided for collaboration for efficiency and internal audit capacity development. The Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Christian Sottie, said his outfit had reassessed its systems and had improved on its operations. According to him, that had contributed to strengthening checks and balances and had led to the arrest of some staff members who had been accused of embezzling funds. For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority, Mr A. B. Adjei, said public procurement contributed about 80 per cent of the national tax revenue and 24 per cent of total imports. He said the Public Procurement Act had introduced processes that served as a deterrent to corruption in public procurement. He said the act provided technical rule on sole sourcing and made requirements for the provision of details in tendering procedures. Source: Daily Graphic