National Anti-Corruption Action Plan: the panacea to fighting corruption -Emile Short
Former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short says the immediate passage of the National Anti-corruption Action Plan (NACAP) is the key to fighting corruption in the country.
According to him, previous initiatives aimed at fighting corruption in the country have just been “piecemeal” but the action plan is a comprehensive and holistic plan, which seeks to fight corruption at all levels and in a very collaborative manner.
As the world celebrates Anti-Corruption day on Monday December 9, 2013, corruption is still a bane to the country's development.
Ghana scored poorly on the recent global corruption perceptions index released by Transparency International despite efforts by government to deal with it.
Recent revelations of corruption in the implementation of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), GYEEDA, SUBAH Info-Solution among others have necessitated various probes and calls for action against the canker.
In an interview on Joy FM's Top Story, Justice Emile Short said the fight against corruption can only be won if Parliament adopts NACAP as a national policy document.
He noted that the National Anti-corruption Action Plan also outlines measures for strengthening key anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies, improving investigation and prosecution.
The former CHRAJ boss indicated some of the steps outlined in the plan like massive education on the evils of corruption, the need to resist corruption and prevention mechanism could be implemented even before it is adopted by Parliament.
“What is important is for the plan to be adopted to bind successive governments in fighting corruption”, he stressed.
Justice Emile Short charged Ghanaians to put pressure on government and anti-graft institutions to demonstrate positively that they are taking positive steps to fighting corruption.
Meanwhile, CHRAJ says its investigations are hampered by inadequate funding.