GHANA has been rated "Moderate," having scored 78 out of 100 points in a global report which assessed national anti-corruption policies and practices around the world.
The ratings are ‘Very Strong,’ ‘Strong,’ ‘Moderate,’ ‘Weak’ and ‘Very Weak’.
The report is the outcome of a study carried out by Global Integrity, a Washington D.C.-based international non-profit organisation dedicated to the comprehensive and timely research and reporting of governance and corruption trends around the world.
Named the ‘2006 Global Integrity Index,’ it also assessed the existence and effectiveness of anti-corruption mechanisms that promote public integrity.
The report which covered 43 countries including some of America’s foremost trading partners and diplomatic allies, major emerging markets, and some of the poorest countries in the world, was released in Washington, USA on Wednesday. Ghana posted a strong position at the West African regional level placing second to Benin which scored 79 points and was also rated "moderate".
Six countries were studied at the West African level out of the total of 15 African countries included in the study. The others are Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
The report showed that Ghana’s strongest performance was in the areas of oversight and regulation, anti-corruption, the rule of law and elections.
Government accountability and civil society, public information and media were said to be ‘moderate’ while the worst performance were in administration and civil service.
"The Integrity Indicators not only assess the existence of laws, regulations, and institutions designed to curb corruption but also their implementation, as well as the access that average citizens have to those mechanisms," the report said.
It noted that corruption was a global problem and that the survey had confirmed that most citizens perceived and often experienced deep-rooted public corruption in their daily lives.
"From Washington to Cotonou, changes in government are occurring on the back of anti-corruption platforms as citizens demand greater accountability. Journalists and civil society groups have become more effective in their watchdog roles, ferreting out specific corrupt acts and abuses of power," it said.
The Managing Director of Global Integrity, Nathaniel Heller, at the report’s launch, said: "The mixing of money and politics continues to be a recipe for corruption in countries both rich and poor, and yet some nations have shown that even with limited resources, political will and strong leadership can prove effective in addressing governance challenges".
A recent Corruption Perception Index report released in October, last year, by Transparency International, a non-governmental organization based in Berlin ranked Ghana 65th amongst 159 voluntary countries included in the 2005 index, with a score of 3.5 out of a possible 10.
This score represented a drop from the 2005 score of 3.6.
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