Anti-Corruption stakeholders to discuss AU Convention on Combating Corruption 

Major Anti-Corruption Stakeholders in Ghana are set to discuss the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC), its challenges, and achievements 20 years after its promulgation. 

The discussion would seek to set the platform to generate discussion on the Convention to increase its visibility and focus on interrogating key policy and implementation gaps relating to the Convention in the anti-corruption fight in Ghana for policy attention.

In a statement signed by Mrs. Mary Awelana Addah, the Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said state and non-state actors would participate in the discussion.

The discussion would hinge on the theme: “20 years of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC): Achievements and Challenges.”

The statement said the event was supported under the Anti-Corruption component of the Ghana Developing Communities Association’s (GDCA) Empowerment for Life (E4L) Programme, of which GII was an implementing partner.

The aim was to institutionalise an annual National AUCPCC Day in Ghana, to discuss anti-corruption issues to ensure the country’s full compliance with the Convention.

It would also identify innovations and best practices for enhancing the anti-corruption fight and make policy recommendations to the government for consideration.

The AUCPCC stakeholders’ discussion event is being organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter for Transparency International (TI), and in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

Other partners are the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) and a representative of the AU Advisory Board on Corruption (AUABC).

Meanwhile, Mrs. Addah has explained that the Convention was enacted to prevent corruption and promote good governance in member states.

She said Ghana ratified the Convention on June 24th, 2007, and since then, the country has mainstreamed most of the provisions of the Convention into local anti-corruption efforts and further developed a National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) to guide and strengthen anti-corruption activities within the country as prescribed by the Convention.

The GII Executive Director noted that, notwithstanding, corruption continued to be a bane in Ghana, as studies showed that the practice permeated the entire society, with its adverse effects manifesting in the socio-economic development of the country.

Mrs. Addah said the 20th anniversary offered Ghana a period for introspection and an opportunity for all anti-corruption stakeholders, both state and non-state actors, to interrogate institutional and national efforts.

She said it was important for Ghana to take stock of its efforts and gains to identify specific areas or issues that needed policy interventions, specifically focusing on what else needed to be done, to promote anti-corruption practices.

She noted that there was also the need to ensure that public accountability institutions mandated to enforcing Ghana’s anti-corruption laws and promoting compliance were working effectively, to control the menace and those who fall through the cracks duly sanctioned.