The posturing of the MDAs defies the directives given by President John Dramani Mahama in his recent State of the Nation address in February, where he served notice of his intention to sanction any public official who fails to implement NACAP.
It has however emerged at an anti- corruption forum jointly put together by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in Accra last week that, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are not forthcoming with the implementation of NACAP after 18 months of coming into being, a development that departs from the orders of the president.
The National Anti-Corruption Action Plan is a strategic document intended to steer the country’s fight against corruption. It contains strategic actions identified and agreed upon by stakeholders, including the private sector, during a nationwide consultation. The greatest strength of the NACAP is that it is to be directly integrated into national development planning, making the plan an integral part of the regular annual activities of public institutions including the MDAs and the MMDAs.
The NACAP seeks to mobilise national efforts to ensure the effective control of corruption. It does not aim at blaming any particular sector for corruption in Ghana. The scope of the NACAP goes beyond controlling corruption in the public sector; it targets the private sector and embraces the activities of state and non-state actors regardless of gender, age, local or international status.
The NACAP adopts a long-term strategic perspective and utilises a three-prong approach to the fight against corruption, namely: (a) prevention; (b) education, and (c) investigation and enforcement.
Speaking on the Progress and Challenges of NACAP, Deputy Director of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, Dr Frank Oduro expressed worry about the progress of implementation, arguing that the state agencies who are supposed to help in the implementation of NACAP have failed to do so and thus leaving the plan in the cold.
Dr Oduro observed that Ghana has made significant progress in its fight against corruption but effective implementation of its anti- corruption strategies by MDAs and MMDAs has remained a big problem.
Dr Oduro told the forum that, “MDAs and MMDAs are not cooperating” with the requirements of the NACAP. Though he concedes that two years of NACAP is too short a time for it to be thoroughly assessed, he believes it is a crucial document that should not be left on the shelves as has been the practice with other important policies in the country. NACAP, he said, is a document that “we can use as a guide to fight corruption,”
The President’s advisor on Governance and Corruption, Mr Daniel Batidam observed that the stakeholders seem not to be interested in implementing NACAP. Mr Batidam said by 2024, “if we are able to achieve 50 percent of the objectives of NACAP, we would have made great progress.”
He said the government had engaged public institutions to implement NACAP; adding that “agreeably they need resources to enable them to execute it”.
“The laws, he emphaised, don’t implement themselves; they are to be implemented by people; therefore all stakeholders must come on board to see to the successful implementation of NACAP.” He said, insisting that the fight against corruption is a collaborative one.
On her part, Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director of the GII, stated that corruption is the most talked about problem in the world because it has been identified as key obstacle to the socio- economic and political development of many countries including Ghana.
Mrs Ofori- Kwafo said though several efforts have been made to curb corruption in the country, “corruption is still a problem in Ghana and remains prevalent in most spheres of Ghanaian society.”
The Forum which was held on the theme “Consolidating Ghana’s Anti- Corruption Efforts: Building Consensus to Address Existing Gaps” was organised to examine how stakeholders will work together more effectively to contribute to the successful implementation of NACAP.
She announced that the forum would be organised annually around specific strategic themes and indicators of NACAP and would feed into the periodic reporting framework of NACAP.
By Mohammed Suleman/Public Agenda
