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Mr. Michael Boadi, the Fundraising Manager, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has stressed the need to control political campaign financing to aid the fight against corruption.
“We must find a way to regulate political campaign finance… We cannot successfully fight corruption if we don’t control political party financing,” he said.
Mr. Boadi said financing political campaigns had been a major contributor to corruption, which, when not managed, could reap the country’s numerous resources.
He said this at the Ghana News Agency’s Boardroom Dialogue platform of the Tema Regional Office, on the theme: “The fight against corruption in the Fourth Republic: A Mirage or Reality?”
“It’s now even becoming more dangerous. Research from the Centre for Democratic Development- Ghana indicates that it costs about $300,000.00 to win a parliamentary seat, and it’s even getting higher.”
“If a parliamentary seat in your small constituency is $300,000.00, then how much do the presidential candidates spend, and where do they get those huge sums of money from?” he asked.
Mr. Boadi said it was time political party campaign financing was made transparent, adding; “Citizens must know the source of funding of political parties, their presidential and parliamentary candidates.”
“If we fail to check the sources of funding, very soon we may have money laundering, drug traffickers, terrorists, and other criminals funding our campaigns and subsequently taking control of the country.”
The fight against corruption would forever be a mirage if steps were not taken to address some of those challenges and boost efforts to eliminate corruption in the country, he noted.
Mr. Boadi cautioned against the politicisation of corruption investigations, which prevented institutions from exercising their mandates, with citizens losing interest in most of the investigative bodies.
He suggested that investigations be made transparent, devoid of interference, to encourage citizens to join in the fight against corruption in Ghana.
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