Accra: The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has reported that two of Ghana’s leading state anti-corruption institutions, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), made significant interventions in 2024. The GACC also revealed that, however, the impact of the two institutions is being blunted by operational delays, limited prosecutions, and resource constraints.
According to Ghana News Agency, the OSP intensified its investigations into corruption-related offences, as evidenced by its biannual activity reports, focusing heavily on investigating high-profile cases, asset recovery, and public education. Yet, despite these efforts, the GACC says the pace of completed prosecutions remains alarmingly slow.
In comparison, it noted that EOCO recorded notable success in financial recoveries, retrieving over GHS269 million through direct and indirect means, adding that direct recoveries into the Consolidated Fund amounted to GHS35.94 million, while indirect recoveries to other institutions stood at GHS233.08 million. It added that EOCO also conducted 720 investigations, which led to 26 prosecutions and two convictions; results seen by observers as promising but insufficient.
Despite these achievements, GACC warns that institutional weaknesses persist, noting that both EOCO and the OSP face challenges related to case backlogs, political interference, limited autonomy, and inadequate funding. ‘For justice to be timely and effective, these institutions must be equipped with the tools, legal muscle, and insulation from executive pressure,’ the report emphasised.
The Public Procurement Authority (PPA), another key institution, also featured in the GACC’s assessment, indicating that with increasing use of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS), the PPA helped digitalise 2,756 tenders in 2024. However, the report questioned whether the digital transition was translating into a significant reduction in procurement-related corruption.
Meanwhile, it stated that CHRAJ continued its mandate by conducting corruption risk assessments and providing public education, building the capacity of National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) focal persons in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to integrate anti-corruption initiatives into local governance, even though it faced financial and logistical constraints that limited its reach.
The Right to Information (RTI) Commission emerged as a rising force in the accountability ecosystem, having decentralised its operations with four regional offices and sanctioning 23 institutions for failing to comply with the RTI law. This, according to GACC, shows a readiness to enforce transparency, but the scale of violations suggests entrenched resistance within the public sector.
Overall, the GACC concludes that while state institutions were making genuine efforts to fight corruption, their overall effectiveness was weakened by delays in prosecution, low conviction rates, inadequate enforcement power, and lack of cross-agency coordination. ‘State institutions have shown potential, but Ghana needs a system that connects these dots and ensures their work leads to real consequences,’ the report stated.
With corruption still a major electoral issue in 2024, the GACC is urging the new government to give these institutions full independence, adequate resources, and stronger legal mandates to carry out their duties without fear or favour. The report concludes, ‘The institutions are standing, but the system must allow them to run.’
Meanwhile, it revealed that vote buying and electoral corruption reached alarming levels during Ghana’s 2024 elections, raising red flags about the integrity of the country’s democratic processes. The findings are supported by the National Commission for Civic Education’s (NCCE) latest election-year survey, which revealed that 17.8 per cent of Ghanaians admitted they would accept inducements in exchange for their votes, while a staggering 35 per cent said they knew someone who had been offered incentives by political candidates, and 19 per cent of respondents reported being personally approached with vote-buying offers, an indication that the practice was no longer covert but becoming normalised.
The report cited Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), as amended by Act 1034 of 2020, which criminalises vote buying and grants the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) jurisdiction over such cases. Yet, despite the prevalence of this practice in 2024, there were no major public prosecutions related to vote buying. According to the report, this apparent lack of enforcement has eroded public trust in the Electoral Commission, dropping sharply from 62 per cent in 2020 to just 42 per cent in 2024, while 43 per cent of respondents said they were unsure whether to trust the Commission at all, a significant signal of voter apathy and institutional credibility crisis.
The GACC warns that electoral corruption, particularly vote buying, poses a grave threat to Ghana’s democracy, stating that ‘when elections are for sale, leadership becomes transactional. Politicians are no longer accountable to the people but to the financiers and cartels who sponsor their campaigns.’