Eleven anti-graft public institutions have
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop protocols that would aid
in combating corruption and crime.
It is in line with the National Anti-Corruption
Action Plan (NACAP) which highlights the need for strong collaboration among
anti-corruption agencies towards conducting effective investigations and
prosecuting such conducts.
The key accountability institutions are
Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Office of the
Special Prosecutor (OSP), Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National
Investigation (BNI), Internal Audit Agency, Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and
the Financial Intelligence Centre.
The remaining institutions are Parliament of
Ghana, Office of the Attorney General, Ministry of Justice, Economic and
Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Ghana Audit Service.
Parties to the agreement are to exchange information
on activities that are geared towards enhancing capacities of institutions and
also minimizing the potential for mandate overlaps.
The agreement which comes into effect after one
month of the MoU requires that mechanisms for case referrals be developed,
periodic engagements for the public are held, joint anti-corruption activities
investigated are conducted while strategies for effective collaboration between
private organisations and civil society are developed.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday
which was attended by heads of some public institutions, the Deputy
Commissioner of CHRAJ, Richard Quayson, indicated that lack of coordination and
collaboration has “weakened the potential for institutionalizing a culture of
transparency and accountability in public life.”
The need for collaboration among public
institutions, he said, had been strongly emphasized at the international level
where the first cycle review of the implementation of the United Nations
Convention against Corruption has recommended Ghana to adopt strong
collaboration measure among public accountability institutions.
Representing the Speaker of Parliament, the
Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso South, Ben Abdallah Banda, who is also
the Chairperson of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Committee, said the collaborative agenda spearheaded by CHRAJ with support from
the EU needed to engage the citizenry and civil society towards the fight
against corruption.
Also present was the Executive Director of the
Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Linda Ofori-Kwafo, who assured the
accountability institutions of the commitment of the civil society groups to
monitor how the agreement would be executed in the coming years.
“We will not only criticize you but we will also
encourage you to ensure the collaboration has to a very large extent been able
to investigate and sanction corruption,” she added.
By Issah Mohammed
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