Transparency International�s Report Is Questionable- Police

Director of Police Public Affairs, DSP Cephas Arthur has questioned Transparency International�s Corruption Perception Index report which ranked Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt saying �the research done whereby year in year out, the police tops the corruption index beats my imagination. It questions the integrity of the research.� According to him, the Police Force was the only public institution that did not hesitate to expose their own when they are caught engaging in corrupt practices. �If there is any public institution in this country which is doing so much to make sure it instills some discipline and rid its membership of people with questionable character, it is the police services�we even go to the extent of exposing our own who are involved in acts of indiscipline and misconduct,� he stated. Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News, DSP Arthur mentioned that even though some police personnel misconduct themselves they should not to be used to measure the whole force. �A lot has been done in this direction. We are not saying that we don�t have a situation where some police personnel within our fold misconduct themselves by taking bribe but you don�t use one or two situations to generalise the issue ,� he said. Adding that, �we are not saying we are an institution of angels. We are just like any other institution so singling out the police all the time and putting them on top of the corruption index is interesting.� On the same issue, Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, Murtala Mohammed insisted he believed that the report was based solely the perception of Ghanaians. �This is how people perceive the system to be. There can never be any society without corruption. What is important is putting the necessary mechanisms in place to ensure that people did not even have the opportunity to be corrupt and that there will be measures to deal with those who are corrupt,� he stated. �I would not take the position that rubbishes the report. It is important to take such reports seriously and see what we can do so that next year or two years to come, there will be a report that says, regardless it being based on perception; that corruption in Ghana has reduced,� he added. Key findings in this year�s Transparency International�s Global Corruption Barometer indicate that public institutions in Ghana suffer the worst levels of bribery. The Global Corruption Barometer reflects the responses of about one hundred and fifteen thousand people in 107 countries including Ghana. The Barometer asked for people�s views on corruption in their country generally, and which institutions the problem of corruption was most severe. Among the eight services evaluated, the Police and the judiciary are seen as the two most bribery-prone.