Corruption is not about government - Bartidam

efua

December 9, 2015 10:55 PM

Mr. Bartidam called for an honest discussion about the issue which will aid government’s quest to eradicate the canker from the system.

The presidential advisor on corruption, Daniel Bartidam has advised Ghanaians to refrain from solely blaming government as the main perpetrator of corruption.

This, he said, has made the fight against corruption difficult saying, “unfortunately, because of the stance many have taken in our society that corruption is about government and so if it is to be fought, it has to be fought by government has made it difficult for us to tackle corruption.”

Ghana in recent times has been hit by a series of corruption scandals with the latest being the judicial corruption scandal which has resulted in the dismissal of 20 Judges.

Government has expressed its commitment to fight the canker but many are of the view that more needs to be done to stop the practice.

In an interview on Radio Ghana’s Behind the News programme, Mr. Bartidam suggested that if citizens expect any substantive progress to be made in tackling the issue of corruption, “then we would have to see many more stakeholders including the private sector and other actors recognizing their role.”

He complained that because corruption has been framed narrowly, “we are looking at the solution from a very narrow perspective. If we decide to narrowly define the problem, we will be creating a solution that is too narrow to address the problem so I agree that enough may not be done by Ghanaians but we like to reduce it to government.”

The presidential advisor argued that if the “Police have received 100 million in bribes, then citizens have paid 100 million in bribes.”

“If you focus your attention on only the receiver and leave the giver, that means you are looking at half the problem and if you are prescribing a solution to that, you will be prescribing a solution to resolve half the problem,” he added.

He called for an honest discussion about the issue which will aid government’s quest to eradicate the canker from the system.

efua