The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Tove Degnbol, has revealed that a number of Danish investors seeking to do business in the country have had to rescind their decision due to bribery demands by officials of government agencies whose job is to facilitate such investments.
Speaking at a business meeting with selected entities which have Danish ties Ms. Degnbol said the development is troubling as Danish companies are generally celebrated for their heavy anti-corruption stance.
“Danish companies are reporting that they often find it difficult to do business in Ghana because they are confronted with requests for illegal payment of services or ‘facilitation money’. At the Embassy, we are proud when companies tell us that they would rather lose an order than become involved in the endless game of paying and being required to pay even more.
Together with a group of Danish companies and their Ghanaian partners we have recently embarked upon an exercise to map out the situations where the risk of corruption is experienced to be large. We do so with a view to engage relevant authorities in a dialogue on how best corruption can be curbed,” the Ambassador said.
According to Ms. Degnbol, the high incidence of corruption has led to the Danish Embassy working on an anti-corruption policy that will allow businesses to work in a safe environment.
“We are trying to map where some of these things happen. We are anonymous because we are not trying to highlight a particular case. But we are trying to see if it is the customs clearing in the harbor, the public offices when you are trying to apply for say driver’s license or somewhere else. And we will be using these mapping where we see bribery and corruption taking place in our policy dialogue with the government, which will be used to develop initiatives to battle corruption.”
Danish anti-corruption example
According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, which provides an indication of the extent of corruption in 176 countries as perceived by business people and experts, Denmark has ranked first as the least corrupt country every year during the past 10 years, with two exceptions being the years 2011 and 2009.
During the same years, Ghana has been moving a bit up and down the ranking, between 61 to 69. From an improved position of 56 in 2015, Ghana’s ranking worsened to 70 in 2016.
“When my predecessor and I counted the silverware in the residence as part of the handing over, one of the small teaspoons could not be found. My predecessor immediately reported the case to Copenhagen and offered to pay with her own means for the missing teaspoon,” the Danish Ambassador said, to underscore the legendary Danish anti-corruption attitude.
“I do not think that the human nature differs much across countries, and when we see large deviations in the extent of corruption across countries, it mainly reflects differences in institutions, traditions, mechanisms for accountability, and not least in the degree of transparency,” noted said.
Source: B&FT
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l am very sad for my country ghana, the woman is saying true.
I do not understand why some people are shocked by her comments. The comments are true and we need to do something about them
Ooh yeah you guys are in ghana because of free business how's our country going to be develop if we give u guys everything for free hahaha funny madam this time no free business anymore we have to feed the poor and make sure they benefits from every thing in ghana includes u visiters 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Africans are morally blinded
Her comments OK. But that about teaspoon is misplaced. That's her internal isdue
I don't get it why some of you here are insulting the woman, what she is saying is the fact, if we want jobs and investors in our country, these are some of the things we need to tackle, it's not about they not being corrupt in their country or not. I can clearly say corruption is keeping soo many companies outside, yes it's very much true that we all need to change our attitude, and that I'll say will never succeed with human nature especially in areas where others sees no punishment or control on how things are run. I have been living outside the country for about 4 years, and what I see is the control systems by their government, the government must establish controls for our systems. Corruption is difficult to fight but when controlled lots of benefits are harvested. I know of a Belgium company that had wanted to come in, another one too I knew but most companies are corruption free. I had to sign my anti corruption agreement and everyone did the same to be part of the company. She's telling the truth so let us not be angry
It is a very serious indictment. I wish she would name culprits. This undermining of national development by the greedy few must be stopped NOW. Enough of it.
Madam the corruption was then practiced by the PNDC/NDC at the moment nothing of such thing is going on , so just bring the investors back please we need them thank you.
Upon this disgraced attitude of Ghanaians,Danny and others are refusing to learn,refusing to adjust this situation or assist in amending this dangerous trade mark driving businesses that may create eployement for our youth.He may be one of them and the question is are Ghanaians supper corrupt human species? Lets bow down our heads in SHAME
I think most Ghanaians are not even recognizing the seriousness of the state of our country We shouldn't be blaming anyone Our whole attitude and culture need to change The " make money fast " mentality need to change This should start from the very least to the very top If we do then our country will change and be a better place for business and a better place to live It is only the politicians or the civil servants but the whole country. Let's all take charge and fight corruption at the grassroots Otherwise we may need another Jerry John Rawlings regime to fix things if we as a nation do not take the responsibility I know many will agree to this comment but it is the naked truth which most time hurts