Police, Presidency, judiciary perceived as Ghana’s most corrupt institutions

The Afrobarometer Round 10 survey has ranked the Ghana Police Service and the Office of the Presidency as the most corrupt institutions in the country.

The survey also shows that while trust in the Ghana Armed Forces, religious leaders, traditional leaders, and NGOs remains relatively strong, overall confidence in state institutions has declined slightly since 2022 and more significantly over the past decade.

Among government officials, the police, the Presidency, tax officials, MPs, and members of the judiciary are viewed as the most corrupt.

Additionally, 74% of Ghanaians feel corruption has increased “somewhat” or “a lot” over the past year, a slight improvement from 2022 figures but still a stark indicator of widespread public dissatisfaction.

Notably, only 26% believe they can report corruption without fear of retaliation, a worrying drop of four percentage points from 2022.

Dr. Edem Selormey, CDD-Ghana’s Director of Research, shared the findings on Friday, October 25.

Highlighting the survey results, Dr. John Osae-Kwapong, Democracy and Development Fellow at CDD-Ghana emphasised the enduring nature of institutional trust issues.

“This round is reinforcing some of the challenges that the Round 9 survey done in 2022 revealed. The key one, for example, is trust in public institutions. In Round 9, we realized that trust in public institutions was at an all-time low. And we are seeing that reflected in Round 10,” he noted.

He further highlighted the need for deterrent measures, stating, “One of the key ways to fight corruption is to make sure that when acts of corruption are found when they do occur, the punishment has to be decisive so that it can serve as a deterrent to others.”

Madam Mary Addah, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, echoed the call for concrete action.

“There is a need for action now. Let’s think of the generation coming up now because they seem to be prone to corruption. So I believe we need to change the narrative so that our children and the children studying them will change the narrative,” she urged.

“We can no longer accept corrupt behaviour the way it’s practised. When we reject and publicly speak against corruption, that’s when we can make progress,” Madam Mary Addah concluded.

With corruption perceptions still high, Afrobarometer’s latest survey underscores the urgency for reforms and consistent anti-corruption measures across all sectors of Ghanaian society.