Twenty-six per cent of adults who interacted with public officials in Ghana paid a bribe for one thing or another, a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed.

The survey shows that more than 8 out of 10 adults in Ghana had, at least, one contact with a public official in 2021.

Some 64.8 per cent interacted with those public officials more than once, indicating that interaction between the public and those who are employed in Ghana’s public institutions is widespread and well-established.

More than a quarter of the people who have contact with public officials

pay them bribes, the report said, explaining that 26.7 per cent of the adult population paid a bribe to a public official in 2021.

Out of all adults who had at least one contact with a public official in 2021, 26.7 per cent paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked to pay a bribe by a public official but refused to do so.

Bribe-payers paid an average of 5 bribes in 2021, the report noted.

It said more than 17.4 million bribes were paid in 2021.

The frequency with which bribes are paid is another important dimension of public sector corruption, the report said.

It added that bribe-payers paid an average of 5 bribes in the 12 months prior to the survey, resulting in an average of 0.98 bribes paid per adult in Ghana in 2021.

"This means that more than 17.4 million bribes were paid in Ghana that year, showing the magnitude of administrative corruption in the country", it noted.

It said "younger people are more likely to pay bribes than older people".

People aged between 25 and 34 are the age group most likely to pay bribes, it added.

With a prevalence of bribery of 29.9 per cent, people aged 25 and 34 are the age group most vulnerable to paying bribes.

The prevalence of bribery decreases steadily to 17.6 per cent among those aged 65 and over while among the youngest adult age group (18–24) it is 23.9 per cent.

The report said "bribery is most prevalent among highly educated people".

It pointed out: "People with the highest level of education are 1.7 times more likely to pay bribes than people with no formal education".

"With a prevalence of bribery of 40.6 per cent, people with a master’s degree and/or a bachelor’s degree are much more likely to have been asked to pay a bribe than those with no formal education", the report noted.

According to the survey, people with the highest level of (tertiary) education were 1.7 times more likely than people with no formal education to have paid a bribe, or been asked to pay a bribe but refused to do so, when in contactwith a public official.