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Corruption Is On The Rise In Most Africa Countries: afrobarometer Report 

By Beyonce Diamond Kpogli
General News Corruption Is On The Rise In Most Africa Countries:afrobarometer Report
JUL 15, 2019 LISTEN

Afrobarometer report released by Transparency International (TI), revealed that corruption, in Africa, is getting worse than previous years their respective countries.

The research conducted by the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) in partnership with Afrobarometer, sampled 47,000 citizens in about 35 African countries on African Anti-Corruption Day.

Speaking at a press conference held in Accra, the Programmes Manager of Transparency International (TI), Mary Awelana Addah explained that, less than a quarter of citizens in Africa perceives that, the fight against corruption is getting better.

In Ghana, the report indicated that 59% of respondents perceive Ghana Police Service is the most corrupt institution, followed by Judges with 38% government officials 35% and Members of Parliament (MPs) with 32%.

“Corruption is hindering Africa’s economic, political and social development, hence a major barrier to growth, good governance and basic freedoms such as freedom of speech which is citizens’ rights to hold governments accountable,” she added.

She added that “Foreign bribery and money laundering divert critical resources away from public services, and ordinary citizens suffer most,” the programmes manager reiterated.

Mrs. Mary Awelana Addah noted that, according to the report, more than 1 in 4 persons that assess public services such as health care and education pay bribe more in the previous year which is equivalent to approximately 130 million across the regions in a country.

The Afrobarometer report also highlighted how corruption disproportionately affects the most vulnerable, with the poorest paying bribes twice as often as the richest.

She further, outlined the key findings of the survey that shows how more than half, representing 55 percent of the population in the surveyed countries perceived corruption is on the rise between the year 2016 and 2018 respectively in African countries.

Adding “only 23% of the surveyed respondents indicates corruption is on the decline, 1 in 3 citizens representing 34% perceived government is doing a good job at fighting corruption, while 59% rate government’s performance as bad.”

Hence, reports on corruption has been difficult in spite of the laws that guarantee protection and rewards proactive reporting, but was quick to add that, 60 per cent of the citizens claimed that government is doing a good job in the fight against corruption whiles 30 per cent debunks the claims of government working hard to fight corruption.

Meanwhile several recommendations were also outlined in the report such as intensifying efforts in the fight against corruption and adequately resourcing the anti-corruption institutions to discharge their mandate, fast track of investigations by Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) and ensuring public awareness per section 3(3) of the Act as well as the enforcement of compliance by authorities at public institutions among others.

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