Former President Jerry John Rawlings has described the state in which the country was prior to the New Patriotic Party’s takeover of government as one “literally drowning in the practice of corruption with impunity”.

According to him, failure on the part of previous administrations to deal with the menace of corruption has resulted in the present situation where corruption is at its peak in the country.

Mr. Rawlings indicated that his government, though faced some corruption crisis during the 70’s, did not have to deal with this much.

“By the time this administration came into office, the country was literally drowning in the practice of corruption with impunity. This administration has, therefore, inherited national corruption at its worst,” Mr. Rawlings stated during a meeting with a delegation of political leaders from Sierra Leone led by Former Vice-President Chief Sam-Sumana on Sunday October 29.

The panacea he recommended, would be for all to join in the fight against corruption to help rectify the situation.

According to him, “The current government owes its own survival to the anti-corruption crusade”, explaining that some administrations who found the integrity level of the AFRC/PNDC too high and intimidating made it a point to corrupt some of the country’s national institutions in order to survive.

Mr Rawlings said the revolution brought the best out of Ghanaians and recalled there were several efforts supported by Western powers to derail the process, including the deportation of one million Ghanaians from Nigeria under Shehu Shagari’s administration.