The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has touted the far-reaching benefits of his digitisation agenda, including its utilisation in the fight against public sector corruption.
Speaking during the 2nd Annual District Auditors’ Conference on Monday, 12 December 2022, the Vice President said the Akufo-Addo-led government has made a sustained effort to fight corruption via enacting laws, tightening existing ones and introducing greater digitalisation in governance and the use of public funds.
Dr Bawumia additionally noted that the government has also increased the level of resource allocation towards the fight against corruption.
“On assuming office, corruption was prevalent in many areas such as the DVLA, where one had to pay a bribe to ‘goro boys’ in order to get a driver’s licence; same thing at the Passport Office; Customs and other officers were having a field day at the ports; it was difficult renewing ones NHIS, and for some reason, dockets kept getting ‘missing’ at the courts.
“There was inadequate funding for anti-corruption agencies; the Right to Information Law had not been passed; there was no legal backing for a beneficial assets register and no law on Witness Protection,” he said.
The Vice President added: “But since 2017, we have taken a number of far-reaching steps in the fight against corruption, including the implementation of a digitisation agenda to disrupt corruption in the public sector.
“We have also passed a number of key laws, including the Witness Protection Act, 2018 (Act 959), the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2018 (Act 959), the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2019 (Act 989), and the Companies Act, 2019, (Act 992). Which provides a framework for enacting a beneficial ownership register,” Dr Bawumia explained.
“To further boost the fight against corruption, deficits in logistics and personnel of law enforcement agencies, especially the Ghana Police Service, and other accountability institutions, are being addressed.
“For instance, since 2017, Government has increased budgetary allocations to all the accountability institutions of State, including the Parliament of Ghana, the Judiciary, CHRAJ, EOCO, the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, the Auditor General, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Ghana Police Service,” Dr Bawumia stated in Accra.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com