Anti Corruption campaigners call for stringent measures to curb corruption

Ghana dropped 11 places from the 2016 ranking to place 81 out of 180 countries in the 2017 Corruption Perception index. 

The Index put together by Transparency International ranks countries annually by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. 

Ghana’s mark out of a total of 100 was 40, down from 43, which the country attained in the last index. 

Executive Director of the local chapter of Transparency International, Ghana Integrity Initiative, Linda Ofori Kwafo, said Ghana's CPI performance is not too good in 2017. 

She said the most important thing on the CPI is the score and so on the scale of 0 to 100, Ghana scored 40 out of 100 points.

Anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International has ranked the public sectors in sub-Saharan Africa as the most corrupt in the world, stating that two countries, Somalia and South Sudan top the list.  

Releasing its 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index, the German-based group said majority of countries in the world are making "little or no progress in ending corruption".  

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories based on the perceptions of business sector and experts, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.  

According to this year's report, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88. 

Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9. 

The report scored Western Europe as the best performing region with an average score of 66 while the worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa with average score of 32 and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with average score of 34.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti- Corruption Coalition, Beauty Nartey, says even though Ghana's performance in the current corruption perception index is disappointing, more can be done to win the fight. 

Speaking to GBC’s Cynthia Boateng, Mrs. Nartey noted that the government has shown commitment to dealing with corruption but the most important factors that need to be given priority are enforcement, prevention and awareness.  

She added that the appointment of the Special Prosecutor may help but his office alone cannot reduce the corruption index if other areas are not given the needed attention.

On how to address public sector corruption, Mrs. Nartey said every public sector worker including those in high office must work efficiently and productively by changing their attitude towards work.

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