Kofi Bentil, an anti-corruption activist and senior vice president at the think tank Imani Center for Policy and Education (Imani Africa), has lamented the rampant dissipation of Ghana’s resources through corruption and corruption-related activities.
Bentil accused a fraction of the population, including the political elite and their appointees, of impoverishing the rest of the population with their acts of corruption that deprive the country of twice what it borrows for development purposes.
Mr. Bentil, a longtime anti-corruption campaigner and campaigner, made this point on Multimedia’s Newsfile program on Saturday, February 4, 2023.
“We steal and waste in this country more than double what we borrow[ in the name of development].
There are less than 500,000 people leading this country of 30 million. And those 500,000 are the ministries and whatever. They steal and squander more than double what the 30 million of us borrow to survive,” he noted.
The New Patriotic Party (PNP) seized the reins of power primarily with the promise of ending the corruption of corruption. However, it has performed poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). A score of 100 means that the country in question is very clean or not corrupt, while a score of 0 means that the country is very corrupt or corruption is rampant in the public sector.
The Akufo-Addo-led administration scored 43 as its highest score since 2017. This compares unfavorably with the former National Democratic Congress (NDC), which posted 43 as its lowest score in 2016.
In 2013, Ghana got 46.00%; 48.00% in 2014, 47.00% in 2015; 43.00% in 2016; 2017 40.00% in 2017; 41.00% in 2018;2019 41.00% in 2019; 43.00% in 2020; 43.00% in 2021; and 43.00 in 2022. Corruption is still widespread in the country.
