Police, Judges Are Most Corrupt In Ghana – Report

THE GHANA Police Service is the most corrupt institution in the country, followed by judges and magistrates, placing the second most corrupt group, the 2019 Global Corruption Barometer has revealed.

The survey report was released yesterday Thursday July 11 Transparency International and it said 59 percent of Ghanaians feel this way about the Police Service and the Judiciary.

It must be noted however that the last survey report in 2015 gathered that as much as 64 percent of Ghanaians said the Police was most corrupt. The percentage has dropped by 5 percent to 59 this year.

The 2019 report said 60 percent of Ghanaians feel the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led government is doing a good job of fighting corruption.

This is a huge positive improvement on the perception of corruption because in last survey report in 2015, only 25 percent of Ghanaians felt the Ghana government at the time was putting up a good fight against corruption.

According to the report, 33 percent of Ghanaians feel corruption has increased in the last 12 months while 36 percent say corruption has decreased in the last 12 months.

Global Corruption Barometer – Africa captures people’s experiences and perceptions of corruption in 35 countries and territories.

Transparency International partnered with Afrobarometer, who spoke to 47,000 citizens between September 2016 and September 2018 about their perceptions of corruption and their direct experiences of bribery.

The countries surveyed are: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The survey includes questions on how citizens perceive corruption in government and public institutions and whether citizens pay bribes for essential services, like water, electricity and education.

Non-Governmental Organisations and religious leaders came out of the survey with better credibility as only 14 percent and 17 percent of Ghanaians respectively view them as corrupt.