The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the national chapter of Transparency International (TI) has called on all citizens to fulfill their civic responsibility of reporting corruption.
The anti-graft body asked all to work to renounce, reject, and report corruption to promote national development.
GII further asked the government to also establish and resource the Whistleblower Reward Fund as provided for in the Whistleblower (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1103).
GII also asked the government to increase public education on the law to encourage victims and witnesses of corruption to report corruption.
Public entities such as the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), as well as civil society organisations (CSOs), must also increase public awareness among the citizenry on the provisions of the laws to ensure that citizens are empowered enough to report corruption, GII added.
“Finally, GII calls on citizens to fulfill their civic responsibility of reporting corruption. Let us
all work to renounce, reject, and report corruption to promote national development,” GII said in a statement on the occasion of the 8th Africa Union Anti-Corruption Day, Thursday, July 11.
The AU Anti-Corruption Day celebration is celebrated annually on July 11, with this year’s theme being “Effective Whistle-blowers Protection Mechanism: A Critical Tool in the Fight Against Corruption.”
The GII stated that Ghana passed a Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720) that provided legal protections and incentives to all persons who report corrupt practices and other illicit activities that militated against the development and growth of the country.
The Act empowers victims and witnesses of corruption to disclose information about observed corrupt or unlawful activities and offers protection and rewards to whistleblowers.
Following over 2 decades of implementing the Whistleblowers Act, the Parliament of Ghana
amended the Act in 2023 to widen the funding streams to enable the establishment of the
Whistleblower Reward Fund as provided by the Act. Also, Section 72(3) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) Act 2017 (Act 959) acknowledges the witness protection provided for in the Whistleblowers Act in addition to the protection provided for in sections 72(1) and 72(2) of the OSP Act.
Furthermore, in 2018, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Witness Protection Act, 2018 (Act 975) which establishes a Witness Protection Programme for endangered persons who as a result of providing information to law enforcement agencies about corruption and other offenses are exposed to the risk of harm or threats.
However, despite all the legislation passed on Whistleblower Protection, the 2019 Global
Corruption Barometer survey reports fear of retribution among the citizens hence low
corruption reporting in the country.
Story by Laud Nartey
