THE CITIZENS Awake Forum (CAF), an anti-corruption group, has proposed the remedy for dealing with corruption in the country.
According to them, the surest way to make corruption unattractive to public officials is to make perpetrators collect refuse through community service and clean places of convenience for months.
The Executive Director of CAF, Ernest Kojo Smith, contended that if high profile personalities who have been cited in alleged corrupt practices are made to collect rubbish in the full glare of the public, it would discourage people who have any motives in following their steps.
“We must be serious as a country. The time has come for the government to devise measures to deal with corruption. CAF strongly believes that the only way out to defeat corruption is for the government to hold corrupt perpetrators to collect refuse or clean places of convenience for a period of months.”
In a statement signed and copied to the DAILY HERITAGE, Mr. Smith noted that since the country was ushered into parliamentary democracy, corruption has been so pervasive and alarming.
“Regrettably, leadership in governance has failed Ghanaians. The state resources are under no proper supervision and that corruption is now a daily ritual in the government institutions,” he added.
“We were in this country when SADA, Subah, Gyeeda etc popped up. It ended up nowhere. One rather expected that the government would have instilled some punitive action against persons who were caught in the net via SADA, Gyeeda scandal.
“In all, CAF finds it rather absurd when government tries to demonstrate a Rambo style of arresting corrupt officials.
“More importantly, it is clear that certain kingpins within the government are untouchable and are beyond reproach. If not, the organizers of the Black Stars fiasco in the world cup who were seen crying upon interrogation and were exposed with massive fraud should have been crucified by the government.”
He said government’s inaction has rather paved way for people “to play dummy” with the public funds.
“The District Assemblies are not left out. It is evidently clear that about 48.4 million cedis could not be accounted for by district assemblies across the country in the 2012 Auditor General’s report.
“We must be serious as a country. The time has come for the government to devise measures to deal with corruption. CAF strongly believes that the only way out to defeat corruption is for the government to hold corrupt perpetrators to collect refuse or clean places of convenience for a period of months,” CAF further noted.
