IMPACT

TITLE: Integrity, Mobilisation, Participation, Accountability and Transparency project
DONOR: Global Affairs Canada (via Transparency International Secretariat)
DURATION: April 2016 – March 2020
LOCATION: Twelve countries in Africa and Latin America

Main Objectives

The IMPACT project is a large-scale multi-country and multi-annual programme coordinated by Transparency International Secretariat. Overall the project focuses on increasing the integrity, transparency and accountability of public sector institutions and the private sector, while empowering civil society to advocate for changes in policy and practice.

In Ghana, the main problem that the project seeks to address is the challenge of inadequate citizens’ participation in corruption prevention and in seeking redress for corruption offences and sanctioning of perpetrators of corrupt acts.

People Engagement:

The changes GII seeks to bring about include:

1. Increased citizens’ awareness on the impact of corruption in their daily lives
2. Increased willingness to report and seek redress for various corruption related violations against them
3. Stronger and more robust collaboration between GII and institutions to ensure speedy redress of complaints reported
4. Promote the implementation of the National Anti – Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) and advocacy for passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Bill

On Public sector Integrity:

1. GII will alsopromote public sector integrity by promoting inclusiveness and improved efficiency, transparency and accountability in the activities of the Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICs).
2. Through planned advocacy actions that will be focusing on the gaps identified in the Ghana Audit Service Act as well as other relevant anti-corruption legislations.

Brief Summary

Corruption is arguably the most talked about problem in the world as being a key obstacles to socio-economic and political development of many countries. According to Ghana’s National Anti-Corruption Action Plan, (NACAP), corruption continues to exact a heavy toll on Ghana’s economy, society and politics, retarding national development.

To address this developmental challenge, Ghana, as far back as 1960 criminalized corruption. Subsequently, Ghana’s Parliament passed various legislations to address the canker. Ghana also adopted a multi-institutional approach by setting up key accountability institutions including the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to lead the fight against corruption in the country. Ghana is also a state party to a number of international and regional Anti-corruption Conventions including the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the African Union Convention for Preventing and Combating Corruption and the ECOWAS Protocol. Also on July 3, 2014, Ghana’s Parliament adopted the NACAP, a ten-year strategy to tackle corruption holistically through prevention, education and enforcement.

These efforts notwithstanding, credible survey findings point to the fact that corruption is still a problem in Ghana and remains prevalent in most spheres of the Ghanaian society. Ghana’s performance on TI’s Corruption Perception Index still remains below average. It is however very important to note that Ghana’s score in the last three years has experienced marginal improvement. Fundamentally, the underlying factors that drive corruption in Ghana have not changed. The culture of widespread patronage of impunity of corruption by the powerful continues to impact on the effectiveness of the entire anti-corruption chain in tackling the canker.  The other challenge hampering anti-corruption efforts is the fact that despite the almost daily reports of misuse of public funds, responses have been scattered and sanctions have not been stringent to serve as a deterrent.

Mention must also be made of the increasing voice of civil society demanding for transparency, accountability and enforcement of legislations and sanctioning of the corrupt.

Results Achieved so Far

The project has enabled the recruitment of a full time ALAC coordinator. Since then the number and quality of ALAC complaints have been steadily increasing. The total number of cases received in 2016 is 39. Of those 6 have been closed, 8 have received legal advice, 17 have been referred to the relevant public institution tasked with their resolution and 7 are pending/on-going. Compared to the March 2016 baseline of 28, there is an increase of 11 cases demonstrating that GII is well on track of meeting its target of 10% annual increase of corruption related cases.

Related Publications

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