Ningo-Ghana, July 14, GNA – The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and its Local Accountability Network (LANet) have educated students of the Ningo Secondary School in the Ningo-Prampram District to join the fight against corruption in Ghana.
The education programme forms part of the programme line-up by the GACC through the LANet to commemorate the 2023 Africa Union Anti-Corruption Day in 31 districts in 14 regions in Ghana.
Mrs. Beauty Emefa Narteh, GACC Executive Director, interacting with the students, charged them and other Ghanaian youth to be interested in how governments spend public funds to be able to raise any corruption issues they might unravel.
She said as Africa commemorated the day, Ghanaians, especially the youth, must be active citizens by developing an interest in how the government spends public funds, demanding accountability, helping to protect the public purse, being patriotic, and rejecting and reporting all corrupt practices.
She disclosed that corruption has been identified as a major root cause of poverty, deprivation, and underdevelopment, adding that in Ghana, corruption had resulted in unemployment and underemployment, poor service delivery, and a lack of access to the basic necessities of life, challenges mostly borne by young people.
She said research had proven that the involvement of young people was crucial in advocating for social change, as they were among the most impacted and constitute a significant proportion of the population.
She added that the youth were generally more receptive to social and political transformations due to their involvement in various spheres of society; therefore, the GACC considers youth agency as a key but untapped element in the fight against corruption.
“Engaging the youth, especially in their schools, gives us the advantage of spreading anti-corruption information to both students and their teachers; whilst the young people armed with the information can spread the message to their parents and other community members, the teachers become a sustainability channel as they will be able to further impart the knowledge gained to generations of students,” she said.
Mr. Samuel Darko, a lawyer at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), educated the students on the process to follow to report corruption cases to the OSP.
Mr. Darko said the informant would be protected by the state and duly compensated for helping to fight corruption.
He said such informants could be celebrated as anti-corruption heroes or be given 10 percent of the amount retrieved from the person involved in the corrupt act.
“You are the young ones who can make a change today; our office is there to prosecute anybody irrespective of their position in the country, and we urge all and sundry, especially you as students, to be bold and report corrupt practices through osp.gov.gh,” he said.
Mr. Godwin Dzivor, the Focal Person for the Local Accountability Network (LANet)-Sege, said bribery, fraud, embezzlement, extortion, conflict of interest, favouritism, nepotism, facilitation payment, illegal contribution, and abuse of discretion were all forms of corrupt practices.
He said transparency, participation, and accountability were the three principles in fighting corruption; therefore, every youth should have a voice against corruption by saying no to it.
