Accra: The AfriKan Continental Union Consult (ACUC) has called on the government to confront the fight against corruption decisively to ensure the country wins the fight against the menace. Dr Benjamin Anyagre Aziginaateeg, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ACUC, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that if corruption was not confronted decisively, Ghana risked grinding to a self-destructive halt, with lost development opportunities, weakened sovereignty, and declining public trust in governance.
According to Ghana News Agency, Dr Aziginaateeg explained that since independence, corruption has remained one of Ghana's deepest governance challenges, and that every administration has pledged 'zero tolerance', yet the system has lacked the political will to enforce real accountability. He added that corruption has spread across state institutions, public services, and political structures, draining national resources, lamenting that the Ghanaian people now perceive politics as a means of personal enrichment rather than public service.
He further stated that despite reforms and anti-corruption rhetoric, systemic corruption continues to thrive, while state capture by political and business elites undermines accountability, illicit financial flows and unexplained wealth weaken the economy, and weak auditing systems and bureaucratic bottlenecks enable rent-seeking. He added that other challenges included public institutions tasked with fighting corruption remaining underfunded or politically influenced, stressing that citizens experience poverty, unemployment, and poor infrastructure while public officials enjoy lavish lifestyles.
The ACUC CEO said Ghana could decisively break the cycle of systemic corruption, recover stolen resources, and create a governance culture where corruption was unattractive, punishable, and preventable. These, he said, could be achieved through the launching of a frontal attack on corruption through the Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) focused-based approach by the national anti-corruption task force mandated to recover stolen state funds, operate free from elite influence, and publish its findings for public accountability.
He further called for the strengthening of the Attorney General Department, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and whistleblower protection units, and also the establishment of fast-track corruption courts. Dr Aziginaateeg also called for a lifestyle audit law to ensure routine lifestyle audits of politicians and senior government officials and the treatment of illicit enrichment and state capture as economic treason.
Other recommendations include streamlining bureaucracy, strengthening internal and external audits, and ensuring a living wage through savings from reduced corruption and the establishment of an Anti-Corruption Training Institute to groom future public servants in ethics and financial discipline. He further suggested the integration of civic responsibility, criminal code basics, and cultural values of integrity into school curricula, and also the establishment of corrective schools run by the Prison Service to address recalcitrant pupils.
He stressed that there was the need to reduce corruption in infrastructure and procurement by 90 per cent through the abolishment of partisan contract rewards and the introduction of Military-Civilian Infrastructural Brigades, as well as the declaration of corruption as a national emergency and existential threat, with drastic punitive measures and uncompromising political will. 'If implemented, these measures will recover billions in stolen wealth for development, create an inbuilt political will against corruption, transform Ghana into a continental case study on good governance, and cement the President's legacy as Africa's foremost anti-corruption reformer,' he added.
