Ghanaians’ perception of corruption among elected officials and governments has witnessed persistent rise since 2002, with 95 per cent of the citizens perceiving that some tax officials and police officers are corrupt.

An independent research conducted by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana, on 2,400 respondents in its Afrobarometer Round 5 Survey in Ghana, on Wednesday announced.

The research, which was carried out between May 9, 2012 and June 1, 2012, but covered the period between 2002 and 2012, showed that one in ten people had reported paying a bribe once or twice; few times or often to procure government document or permit.

Briefing journalists and other stakeholders on the research findings in Accra, Mr Edward Fokuoh Ampratwum, a Senior Research Officer at the CDD, added that while nearly a tenth of the respondents reported offering bribe to procure water or sanitation service; eight per cent said they had offered bribe to obtain treatment in a healthcare delivery centre and 6 per cent of the citizens confessed they had given out bribe to secure school placement for a ward.

He said the report also revealed that 61 per cent of Ghanaians perceived some local government councilors as being corrupt, while 56 per cent of the citizens perceived metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives as corrupt.

Mr Ampratwum added that 58 per cent of Ghanaians perceived corruption among some officials at the presidency and some members of parliament while 56 per cent observed that governments were corrupt.

He said in terms of policy demands, Ghanaians perceived unemployment, education and health as the three most important problems facing the country that needed to be addressed by the Government.

Mr Ampratwum said, “the research revealed that majority of Ghanaians rate national government responsiveness in handling job creation and fighting corruption either “very badly” or “fairly badly”.

“On the other hand, majority rate the national government efforts at addressing educational needs (60 per cent) and improving basic health services (63 per cent) “very well” or “fairly well”.

Mr Ampratwum said while the positive ratings of government performance over the period 2002 to 2012 were generally on decline, the negative ones were on the rise.

“The reductions and increments in the positive and negative ratings respectively for the period 2008 to 2012 are generally higher than those of 2002 to 2012,” he said.

Mr Ampratwum said the research revealed that a solid majority of Ghanaians supported media exposure of government mistakes and corruption with 55 per cent of them endorsing free media practice.

“But a large minority (43 per cent) endorse government control over the media practice,” he added.

Commenting on this, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Member of the Board of Directors, CDD-Ghana, said it sounded ironical that in one breath Ghanaians supported and applauded the media for their efforts in exposing corruption and mistakes of government, but at the same time endorsed governmental control over the media.

She said it could be that either the respondents did not have proper understanding of what the media was or that perhaps public confidence in the ability of the media to operate within their boundaries was on a decline.

On corruption, she said, even though some attempts had been made to control it, perhaps media exposure and civil rights activities against the menace had contributed to increased public debate and perception of the subject.

Prof Gadzekpo called on anti-corruption bodies to change their strategy to fight the menace.