Bolgatanga (U/E), March 16, GNA - The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, on Wednesday called for the fight against corruption to be given priority attention so as to reduce its negative effects on national development.

He said corruption did not only create a dent on the country's reputation with its international community but also negatively affected the revenue level of the nation.

Mr Woyongo made this call on Wednesday during a consultative workshop aimed at putting together a National Anti-corruption Action Plan (NACAP) for Ghana held in Bolgatanga.

He said the United Nations Convention against corruption, the African Union Convention and ECOWAS Protocol on corruption were steps Ghana had taken to combat the canker of corruption. He said the practice of corruption was pronounced within some public and private sectors because Public officials entrusted with the public purse had been misusing such powers.

He urged stakeholders assisting in the development of NACAP to reflect on their roles in the implementation to enrich the document. Mr Charles Ayamdoo, Director of Anti Corruption at CHRAJ, said responses to corruption over the years had been too little, uncoordinated, not sustained and not strategic.

Mr Ayamdoo said plans and strategies developed in the past to combat corruption could not be achieved because of weak political commitment and poor coordination.

He listed some of the causes of corruption as institutional weakness, poor ethical standards, skewed incentives, insufficient enforcement of the laws and regulations, availability of corruption but little chances of being caught and lack of accountability among others.

To fight this social problem, he said there was the need to approach the problem with a more comprehensive system.