Claim: Ghana’s anti-corruption index, according to President Nana Akufo-Addo, has risen several notches since he took office in 2017.
Verdict: According to the Corruption Perception Index, the world’s most trusted indicator for measuring alleged levels of public sector corruption, Ghana has not increased dramatically in terms of expectations of lower corruption between 2012 and 2020.
Full text
In a recent interview with CNN’s Zain Asher, which was released on YouTube, Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said that since his party took over governance, Ghana’s ranking in the world in terms of corruption has improved significantly.
Ghana, in his own words, has “gone up several notches.”
The transcript of his response to the question of corruption in Ghana is given below.
Zain Asher: One of your most important mandates aside from fixing the economy is of course tackling corruption. Are you proud of the way your government has dealt with corruption and what specific steps have you made in trying to root it out?
Nana Akufo-Addo: The word proud or pride is not the word I would use. Am I satisfied that we’ve been effective? I will say yes. I will say yes. A lot has been done, and it is reflected in Ghana’s growing position on rankings of corruption in the world. We’ve gone up several notches since I came into office because we are dealing with these matters at the basic level.
For the anti-corruption institutions of our country, when I came into office, [they] were very poorly resourced. We can talk all we like about corruption and make all the wonderful statements but if the instruments at your disposal for dealing with it are weak and blunt, you will get no result.
Verification
Transparency International’s global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is the most authoritative and regularly referenced corruption ranking survey in the country.
According to analysts and businesspeople, the ranking lists 180 countries and territories based on their alleged rate of public sector corruption.
While the index has been in existence since 1995, Ghana first appeared in it in 1998, ranking 55th out of the 85 countries featured that year.
The table below displays Ghana’s ranking since her debut in 1998.
Blue: Ghana’s CPI ranking
Red: Total number of countries assessed
NB: The higher the ranking, the higher the perception of corruption.
The point was made by President Akufo-Addo, who took office in January 2017. Saying that Ghana has risen several notches since he took office suggests that Ghana’s rating has substantially increased since the 2016 survey, which was published during John Mahama’s presidency.
Table 1: Ghana’s Performance on the CPI from 2016 – 2020
The table below explains what each score means.
According to available statistics, Ghana’s rating on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has gone up and down since the Akufo-Addo administration took power.
Global Corruption Barometer
In its most recent report (2019), Transparency International’s other corruption tracker, the Global Corruption Barometer, finds that 33% of those polled believe that corruption has risen in the previous year.
The same number of citizens said they had charged bribes in the previous 12 months to gain access to public services.
According to the previous survey, released in 2015, 76 percent of those polled believed that corruption had escalated in the previous 12 months, and 36 percent said they had paid bribes in the previous 12 months to gain access to public services.
Has corruption level changed in the previous 12 months?
Conclusion
According to the available data from Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Ghana’s rating has not changed or “risen several notches” since President Akufo-Addo took office in 2017.
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SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
