Public perception of corrupt elected officials rises - CDD Afrobarometer

Accra, Sept 12, GNA – Ghanaians' perception of corruption among elected officials and governments has witnessed persistent rise since 2002, with 95 per cent of the citizens perceiving that some tax officials and police officers are corrupt.

An independent research conducted by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana, on 2,400 respondents in its Afrobarometer Round 5 Survey in Ghana, on Wednesday announced.

The research, which was carried out between May 9, 2012 and June 1, 2012, but covered the period between 2002 and 2012, showed that one in ten people had reported paying a bribe once or twice; few times or often to procure government document or permit.

Briefing journalists and other stakeholders on the research findings in Accra, Mr Edward Fokuoh Ampratwum, a Senior Research Officer at the CDD, added that while nearly a tenth of the respondents reported offering bribe to procure water or sanitation service; eight per cent said they had offered bribe to obtain treatment in a healthcare delivery centre and 6 per cent of the citizens confessed they had given out bribe to secure school placement for a ward.

He said the report also revealed that 61 per cent of Ghanaians perceived some local government councilors as being corrupt, while 56 per cent of the citizens perceived metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives as corrupt.

Mr Ampratwum added that 58 per cent of Ghanaians perceived corruption among some officials at the presidency and some members of parliament while 56 per cent observed that governments were corrupt.

He said in terms of policy demands, Ghanaians perceived unemployment, education and health as the three most important problems facing the country that needed to be addressed by the Government.

Mr Ampratwum said, “The research revealed that majority of Ghanaians rate national government responsiveness in handling job creation and fighting corruption either “very badly” or “fairly badly”.

“On the other hand, majority rate the national government efforts at addressing educational needs (60 per cent) and improving basic health services (63 per cent) “very well” or “fairly well”.

Mr Ampratwum said while the positive ratings of government performance over the period 2002 to 2012 were generally on decline, the negative ones were on the rise.

“The reductions and increments in the positive and negative ratings respectively for the period 2008 to 2012 are generally higher than those of 2002 to 2012,” he said.

Mr Ampratwum said the research revealed that a solid majority of Ghanaians supported media exposure of government mistakes and corruption with 55 per cent of them endorsing free media practice.

“But a large minority (43 per cent) endorse government control over the media practice,” he added.

Commenting on this, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Member of the Board of Directors, CDD, Ghana, said it sounded ironical that in one breath Ghanaians supported and applauded the media for their efforts in exposing corruption and mistakes of government, but at the same time endorsed governmental control over the media.

She said it could be that either the respondents did not have proper understanding of what the media was or that perhaps public confidence in the ability of the media to operate within their boundaries was on a decline.

On corruption, she said, even though some attempts had been made to control it, perhaps media exposure and civil rights activities against the menace had contributed to increased public debate and perception of the subject.

Prof Gadzekpo called on anti-corruption bodies to change their strategy to fight the menace.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at the end of the forum on the issue of governmental control over the media, Professor Ken Attafuah, a legal practitioner, said it could be that the respondents were reacting to the excesses of a section of the media whose reportage had lowered the quality of public decency and created unnecessary tensions in society.

He stressed that the cure to that unfortunate situation on the part of the section of the media does not depend on governmental control stressing that “in a free and democratic society, government control over the media is considered as an enemy to the society.”

Prof Attafuah stressed that the media rather needed to be regulated by law and ethics of the profession.

Afrobarometer is a comparative series of public opinion surveys that measured public attitudes toward democracy, governance, the economy, leadership, identity and other related issues.

It is said to be an independent, non-partisan, African-based network of researchers.

The first round of surveys took place in 1999-2001 in 12 countries and currently, the network is conducting “Round 5” surveys in up to 35 countries, including Ghana, for 2011 and 212.

The purpose of the survey is to measure popular perspectives on the social, political and economic environments in each country where it is implemented.

The Afrobarometer also aims at giving the public a voice in policy making processes by providing high-quality public opinion data to policy-makers, policy advocates and civil society organizations, academics, media, donor and investors, and ordinary Africans.

GNA