The Project Coordinator for the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mr. Michael Okai has encouraged all Ghanaian citizens to be very watchful over people who deliberately take bribe from them in the name of offering them a helping hand.
GII is the Ghana Chapter of Transparency International (TI), the global, non-governmental, non-profit civil society organization leading the fight against corruption through more than 90 chapters and over 30 individual members worldwide and an international secretariat in Berlin, Germany.
According to Mr. Michael Okai, the move is to urge the general public to help in the fight against corruption in the country in view of the rise in the phenomenon.
Citizens are pathetic in fighting against corruption, said Mr. Okai. The strategy in alleviating this is therefore to sensitize citizens to know their Rights and Responsibilities in the fight against corruption in the country.
The Project Coordinator warned that the canker if not checked could cause damages to the country including even the potential to kill.
“Corruption can kill and for that matter must be eradicated,” he wartned. “Every citizen should therefore learn to say ‘no to bribe’ especially during elections.”
He was particularly concerned with those he referred to as ‘people in higher authority’ who he described as important and whom he encouraged to work with integrity.
“People in higher positions, most importantly leaders in the various institutions should with all due respect work with integrity and also ensure that there is transparency in the services they are rendering at all times,” he admonished.
He said citizens must advocate for the sanctioning of corruption acts in our various communities in order to minimize corruption in our societies.
Further, Mr. Okai stated that citizens must use accountability mechanism platforms to report corrupt practices to the appropriate institutions for it to go through the right processes to ensure that all offenders are punished according to the Anti-Corruption Laws of Ghana.
In an interview with Rite News, Mr. Okai said “everybody should be patriotic in the fight against corruption” even to the extent of blowing the whistle over their own relatives who indulge in the act, adding that the impact of others’ negligence can affect others directly or indirectly.
The Project Coordinator for Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) who regretted the frequent acts of corruption in the country disclosed that not less than twenty cases of corruption have been recorded in the first quarter of 2018.
It is a non-partisan, non-profit civil organization focused on addressing corruption.
The mission of GII is “to fight corruption and promote good governance in the daily lives of people and institutions by forging strong, trusting and effective partnership with government, business and civil society and engagement with the people”
Source: Rita Nkansah /www.ritefmonline.org/rnkansah12@gmail.com.
