Mr Charles Ayamdoo, the Director, Anti-Corruption of Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says plans were afoot to name and shame institutions that fail to implement the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP).
He said the naming and shaming approach would compel the institutions to adhere to the action plan initiated by the Government to fight corruption as an alternative approach after dialogue with such institutions had failed.
He said the GACC was ready to partner the media to make the policy effective, adding that the 10-year NACAP initiative by government (2015-2024), was meant to contextualise and mobilise effort and resources of stakeholders in the fight against corruption.
Mr Ayamdoo was addressing participants at a roundtable engagement held by the GACC with its stakeholders on the theme: “Strengthening collective action in the fight against corruption in Ghana” to address the bottlenecks, which hampered the implementation and allowed for an effective take-off of the plan to curb corruption in the country.
The GACC also took the opportunity to launch a report which investigated NACAP through its awareness, the readiness of Implementing Partners (IPs), the level of implementation and challenges.
Mr Ayamdoo said that the coalition took steps to address some challenges such as low levels of awareness, funding, use of focal persons instead of units, low political commitment and lack of monitoring or supervision as was discovered through its investigative research.
“If we see funding as a collective effort and IPs would begin to internalise activities and carry them out as part of their everyday work flow in the fight against corruption, the challenge of funding would be a thing of the past,” he said.
Mr Bright Sowu, Ag. Head of Programmes GACC, said that in furtherance of the coalition’s aim to fight corruption it recommended through its report that there was the need for stakeholders and monitoring bodies to kick start extensive awareness campaigns to educate management of institutions, staff and the wider community on NACAP.
He said IPs should improve on the implementation of the NACAP by incorporating its activities into their core functions rather than implementing them as standalone exercises.
Mr Sowu said the creation of systems in-charge of NACAP implementation could be more effective, if specific units or focal units within organisations were identified, well briefed or trained on the parameters of anti-corruption.
He noted that the coalition as part of its recommendations called on the government to promote the implementation of the Action Plan and put in measures to encourage its implementation in public offices such as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Metropolitan, Municipal District Assemblies (MMDAs), Civil Society Organisations, Anti-Corruption Institutions and the Private Sector.
He said CHRAJ, Monitoring Committee and High-level Implementation Committee were tasked to intensify its supervision of IPS as effective monitoring was essential to the success of anti-corruption strategies.