Over half of Ghanaians believe Corruption has increased – Afrobarometer  

Center for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) has released a new Afrobarometer report that indicates that Ghanaians generally are of the view that the level of corruption is on the increase in the country.

The government has been graded low on its graft fighting moves in the country, an indication that the government has done poorly in the fight against corruption.

The Afrobarometer Round 8 survey released by CDD-Ghana indicates that approval ratings for the government’s anti-corruption efforts have declined sharply since 2017 after more than doubling in the previous three years. 

Presenting the survey, a member of the team, Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye, said most Ghanaians perceive at least “some” corruption in key public institutions, and the majority fear retaliation if they report graft to the authorities.

Prior to the release, Ghana has been ranked 78th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, three places below its 2017 position.

The Key findings of the survey show that among key public officials in Ghana like the police, judges and magistrates, Members of Parliament, civil servants, and tax officials are most widely perceived as corrupt. 

It revealed however, that, the perceived corruption among the police has declined slightly when compared to 2017.

“The police are the institution that the largest number of citizens report bribing to access services. Among those who had contact with key public services during the previous year, four in 10 say they paid a bribe to avoid problems with the police (42%) or to obtain police assistance (39%),” she noted.

The report, according to her indicates that the Army, religious leaders, and the presidency are the most trusted public institutions.

“By this, about 72%, 63%, and 58% say they trust those institutions “somewhat” or “a lot” while the opposition political parties had 37%, local government officials with 38%, and tax officials 39% are least trusted,” she added.

According to her, more than half of Ghanaians representing 53 percent say corruption has worsened “somewhat” or “a lot” during the year preceding the survey which is 17-percentage-point increase as compared to 2017. 

“This follows a huge 47-percentage-point improvement between 2014 and 2017,” she added.

The Afrobarometer survey revealed the concern that 6 in 10 Ghanaians representing 61 percent believe they risk retaliation or other negative consequences if they report incidents of corruption and only one-third representing 34 percent say they can report corruption without fear of retaliation.

Madam Appiah-Nyamekye compared the latest release on corruption to 2017 and said there has been a 27-percentage-point drop in popular approval ratings of the government’s performance in fighting corruption – a dramatic reversal of earlier gains. 

“Only a minority (40%) say the government is doing a “fairly” or “very” good job,” she revealed.

A sample size of 2,400 adult Ghanaians that were interviewed between 16th of September to 3rd of October 2019. The sample size yields country-level results with a margin of error +/- percentage points at 95 percent confidence level  

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, nonpartisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across.

Present at the presentation were CSOs, private and public institutions, anti-corruption campaigners and other relevant stakeholders who brought in various ideas and suggestions to tackle issues of corruption in the country.

Source: Eric Nii Sackey || [email protected]