Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, the Council Chair of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has highlighted a research on corruption, which sees the culture of silence by employees who are witnesses to most of corrupt practices as a worrying phenomenon.
“Indeed, findings show that most public servants are nonchalant about the act of corruption perpetuated by colleague workers. Essentially, some employees see nothing wrong with their principal officers and other colleagues indulging in acts of corruption, their reason being that they might do same when they assume office,” he said in a welcome address at the 8th Leadership Dialogue Series on the theme “Uprooting Public Sector and Political Corruption in Ghana.”
The Leadership Dialogue Series is the flagship civic education platform of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to nurture mass political participation and patriotic values through intellectually stimulating discussions with prominent national leaders.
According to Dr. Sodzi-Tettey at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) on May 12, 2021, the research published by Mawuko Dza of the School of Business, University of Education, Winneba and his colleagues, examined whether the thorny subject of Corruption in Public Procurement in Ghana is seen as a societal norm or a deviant behaviour.
He noted that the research revealed widespread corruption within the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.
“Notable procurement related corrupt practices unraveled included influence peddling, inflating contract sums, payment for non-existing contracts, deliberate contract splitting, multiple payments for contracts, use of phantom vendors and misapplication of public funds. … The research also discovered how Internal and external auditors ostensibly “train” principal officers on how to conceal corrupt practices in return for money and other rewards,” he stated.
He noted that findings show that most public servants are nonchalant about the act of corruption perpetuated by colleague workers. Essentially, some employees see nothing wrong with their principal officers and other colleagues indulging in acts of corruption, their reason being that they might do same when they assume office.”
According to him, evidence from the study showed that procurement related corruption is engrained in the mindset and fibre of most Ghanaians to the extent that the phenomenon is no longer seen as a serious cancer that must be seriously dealt with.
“Clearly, without rigorous enforcement of systemic solutions, we will fail over and over, no matter how harsh the anti-corruption rhetoric, he added.
He said that “For us at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), to the extent that public sector and political corruption impedes our fight for social justice, equitable distribution of the wealth, privileges and opportunities of society, the CSJ will continue to position itself on the side of anti-corruption fighters at all times-be they in the public sector or within the civil society community.
Speakers at the dialogue series were His Lordship Justice Yaw Appau, Justice of the Supreme Court; Mary Awelana Addah, Programmes Manager, Ghana Integrity Initiative and Manasseh Azure Awuni, Editor-in-Chief EIC, 4th Estate, who diagnosed the true root causes and prescribed surgically precise ways to uproot the canker of corruption.
The CSJ is a platform of social change activists who are young professionals with left of center political ideological sympathies, engaging proactively and deliberately in Ghana’s political space.
It does this in order for the masses of the people to realise the promise of over twenty years of democracy-fair and just distribution of the society’s wealth, opportunities and privileges leading to progressive social transformation and people centered development.
By Damian Avevor, Newswatchgh.com
