Accra, Nov. 6, GNA - Ghana failed to stem the perception of corruption among the society with a low score of 3.3 in the 2006 Corruption Perception Index released on Monday by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International.

This score represents a drop from the 3.5 recorded in 2005. Ghana's best CPI score was 3.9 achieved in 2002.

Ranked 70 on the list of 163 countries surveyed worldwide, officials said Ghana was far from winning the fight against corruption. Ghana, however, ranked seventh among the 45 African countries included in the report.

The 2006 index on Ghana is based on data from six surveys conducted between 2005 and 2006.

The institutions that conducted the survey in Ghana included World Bank (International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Country Risk Service and Country Forecast 2006, Merchant International Group, UN Economic Commission for Africa, World Economic Forum and the World Market Research Centre, Risk Ratings, 2006.
"In fact this year's CPI score of 3.3 takes Ghana back to its lowest point since its inclusion in Transparency International's annual corruption rankings and indicates clearly that the nation has retrogressed in the anti-corruption battle," Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Programmes Manager GII, said at the launch of the Report.
She said Ghana's 2006 CPI score reinforced the findings of local surveys conducted in 2005 by the Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana's Self Assessment under the African Peer Review Mechanism 2005 Report and GII's Voice of the People Survey, which concluded that there was popular high perception of corruption among public officials.
Mrs Ofori-Kwafo called on government, as a means of improving on this score, to expedite action on the passage of a credible Freedom of Information Bill to facilitate public access to information on government activities, including budgetary allocation, revenue and expenditure.
There must also be a review of the Public Procurement Act 663, especially the portions that relate to sole sourcing, to enhance accountability and transparency and increase trust in government. She called for reforms to the public office holder's asset declaration regime to reflect international best practice and to make it effective.
"Key principles such as accessibility, verifiability and frequency of filing, sanctions and coverage are central to an effective public office holder asset disclosure regime."
Mrs Ofori Kwafo urged government to speed up the process of domesticating the international anti-corruption conventions, that is, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, which the country had already ratified.
The number of countries covered in the 2006 CPI is 163 compared to 159 in 2005, an increase of four new entrants.
Out of the 45 African countries that were surveyed only two, Botswana and Mauritius, scored above five, which is commonly seen as the threshold for serious corruption.