Vice President Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia has disclosed that Government is committed to anti-corruption fight.
Dr. Bawumia gave this assurance on Monday at the 2nd Annual District Auditors’ Conference.
The Vice President said since assuming office in 2017, Government under the tutelage of Akufo Addo has provided the necessary support and logistics to the crime prevention and introducing greater digitalization in governance and the use of public funds while increasing resources allocated to the fight.
“On assuming office, corruption was prevalent in many areas such as the DVLA, where one had to pay a bribe to ‘goro boys’ in order to get a drivers licence; same thing at the Passport Office; Customs and other officers were having a field day at the ports; it was difficult renewing ones NHIS, and for some reason, dockets kept getting ‘missing’ at the courts.
“There was inadequate funding for anti-corruption agencies; the Right to Information Law had not been passed; there was no legal backing for a beneficial assets register; and no law on Witness Protection.
“But since 2017, we have taken a number of far-reaching steps in the fight against corruption, including the implementation of a digitization agenda to disrupt corruption in the public sector.
“We have also passed a number of key laws, including the Witness Protection Act, 2018 (Act 959), the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2018 (Act 959), the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2019 (Act 989), and the Companies Act, 2019, (Act 992). Which provides a framework for enacting a beneficial ownership register,” Dr Bawumia explained.
“To further boost the fight against corruption, deficits in logistics and personnel of law enforcement agencies, especially the Ghana Police Service, and other accountability institutions, are being addressed,” he emphasized.
“For instance, since 2017, Government has increased budgetary allocations to all the accountability institutions of State, including Parliament of Ghana, the Judiciary, CHRAJ, EOCO, the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, the Auditor General, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Ghana Police Service,” Dr Bawumia stated in Accra.
