One Trillion Dollars Paid As Bribes In Public Sectors

A total amount of one trillion US dollars is paid in bribes every year worldwide which excludes estimates for worldwide extent of corruption and embezzlement in the Public sector. This was disclosed by Jeremiah Blaser, Deputy Director in charge of programmes, United Nations Development Programme, UNDP in Koforidua when opening a 3-day capacity building workshop on Anti-Corruption and Money Laundering for prosecutors and investigators in the Attorney General Department. He continued that corruption can cost a country up to 17% of its GDP which impacts negatively on the Economy with disproportionate and negative effect on the poor and vulnerable. Mr. Blaser admitted that UNDP views corruption as governance deficit as a result of malfunctioning state institutions due to poor governance. He said implementation challenges remains an obstacle to Ghana in her fight against bribery and corruption despite the solid legal anti-corruption framework put in place, citing Public Procurement Act, Whistle Blowers Act, the aspect of criminal code criminalizing active and passive bribery, Anti-Money laundering Act among others. He explained that, Ghana can perform better in the Transparency International Corruption Index which rated Ghana from 69th position in 2011 to 64th position in 2012 out of 178 countries, if the laws are implemented. Mr. Blaser said,Transparency International`s Global anti-corruption barometer conducted in 2010 revealed that 37% of respondents are reported to have paid a bribe. Whiles a World Bank Enterprise report in 2007 indicated that 40% of companies in Ghana expected to make informal payments in other to get things done. He was worried that UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of justice, Justice support baseline study revealed in 2010 that 90% of Ghanaians perceive corruption within the Judiciary. Finally, he charged the Attorney General to make sure they intensify the monitoring and evaluation roll to ensure successful prosecution of corrupt cases and avoid occurring judgment debts in the country. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Madam Marrieta Brew Appiah-Oppong said the NDC government is committed to fighting corruption in the country which is evident with the Presidents directive to the AG�s department to prosecute persons found to have misused public purse in the Auditor-General`s Report and the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency, GYEEDA, She however explained that corruption cannot be eradicated by only government, therefore calls on Ghanaians to cooperate by using the whistleblower Act. Madam Marrieta Brew Appiah-Oppong was of the view that, the workshop will empower prosecutors and investigators in the AG department to get improve knowledge on investigating corruption and Money Laundering cases. She advised investigators to do thorough work on allegations of corruption and money laundering before dockets are sent to the Attorney General`s office for prosecution.