Individuals should be allowed to prosecute corruption cases – Domelevo

General News on Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-02-12

The External Auditor, Daniel Domelevo, wants the country's laws amended to allow individuals to sue the perpetrators of corruption-related cases.

For him, prosecutions for corruption should not be the exclusive preserve of government agencies because they affect society as a whole.

Domelevo said that if this is done, individuals could be compensated to encourage more people to venture into such areas, which could help reduce the prevalence of corruption in the country. .

Speaking at a public meeting organized by Citi FM and the Media Foundation for West Africa, Domelevo said: "I seriously think that it is necessary to privatize or commercialize the lawsuits for corruption. "

"It is an offense that affects us all and we should all have the right to sue corrupt practices. This will help control corruption because if I aim to sue you, you will also aim to sue me. So we will control ourselves.

The Auditor General suggested that the state should also motivate those responsible for prosecuting corruption to create jobs for others.
"I am sure that some journalists, lawyers and accountants will devote most of their time to the fight against corruption, because if they win these lawsuits, the state must compensate them. People should make a living fighting corruption. Currently, people are using their own resources to fight corruption and are even in danger. "

The theme of the event is "Assessing the performance of the media in the fight against corruption in Ghana: two years after the start of the administration of Akufo-Addo".

Over the years, Ghana has consistently scored low on the annual Corruption Perceptions Index, reflecting the presence of corruption in the country.

As a candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has campaigned to pledge to fight public sector corruption if she is elected.

Ghana's performance on corruption perception index has risen from 40 in 2017 to 41 in 2018.

The report places Ghana in 78 out of 180 countries; an improvement over the rank of 81 in 2017.

According to Transparency International figures, this score marks a positive departure from the country's continuous decline over the past 47 years.

In a statement, the government said it was doing everything possible to reduce corruption in the country and urged Ghanaians to join this initiative.

"We reiterate the government's commitment to fight the threat of public sector corruption in our body politic, and we ask the brave people of Ghana to support the government's digital inclusion agenda that has played a role major in reducing the human interface in key transactions, "signed the Deputy Information Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide, added.