Office of the President ranked 2nd most corrupt institution in Ghana

The Office of the President has been ranked as the second most corrupt institution in Ghana.

This was revealed in a Socio-economic and Governance survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs(IEA).

The Police Service which has been revealed as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country was ranked as the first most corrupt institution in the IEA survey.

The survey was conducted in all the ten regions of Ghana with persons aged 18 years and above as the target population.The IEA noted that one of the most pressing governance challenges confronting the country is the high prevalence of bribery and corruption.

Respondents in the survey ranked Tax officials and Members of Parliament as third and fourth most corrupt respectively.

Other corrupt officials, according to respondents, were government officials, District Chief Executives, Judges and Magistrates, Assembly Men and Women, Immigration and the army respectively.

The Office of the President recently came under intense criticism after its own report to Parliament  revealed that it had overspent by about 100%, its budgetary allocation for 2014.

Parliament approved a ceiling of GHC30,929,343 but according to the 2014 report from the Finance Committee of Parliament, the Presidency spent GHC75,917,714 between January and September 2014 only.

‘A profusely wasteful’ Chief of Staff Office

IMANI Ghana recently ranked the Chief of Staff Office which is under the Office of the President as the worst public performer in Ghana.

An article written by the Executive Director of the think tank, Franklin Cudjoe noted that:  “over the last two years, this office has been reputably ineffective and profusely wasteful.  Last year, the Office of the Chief of Staff alone overspent its budget by about GHC41 million ($ 13m) on items that are not clear to the public.”

According to Franklin Cudjoe ,”the Chief of Staff gives orders and counter orders which played out comically in public a few times making a mockery of what is expected of a well coordinated office.”

He made this startling revelation after the former Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani was relieved of his position by President John Dramani Mahama.

Trust in Public Institutions

The survey also revealed that the public seem to have little confidence in some state institutions, emphasizing that “the image of the tax department especially leaves much to be desired”

Out of 11 institutions studied, 37.4 percent of the people said they do not trust the Tax Department while 35.8 percent said they had lost confidence in the Electoral Commission.

35.6 percent had  lost confidence in the “ruling party”,35. 1 percent had lost trust in the Police, 33.9 percent had lost trust in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles while 33.8 percent and 33.1 percent had lost confidence in the Office of the President and Parliament respectively.

–By: Marian Efe Ansah