The European Union, through its Accountability, Rule of law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP), has drawn down the curtain on a five-year programme that supported institutions such as the Ghana Police Service, Judicial Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and National Commission and Civic Education (NCCE) in their fight against corruption.
Other institutions that were involved included the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Legal Aid Commission (LAC), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Star Ghana Foundation, and Office of the Attorney General.
The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Diana Acconcia, speaking at the ARAP closure on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 in Accra, indicated that anti-corruption programmes had proven to work better when focusing on a specific issue. “ARAP, therefore, worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to support its capacity to fight illegal practices harmful to the environment,” she stressed.
According to her, the support was focused on improving and digitising the EPA’s monitoring compliance system to strengthen its complaints management system, as well as enforcement (prosecution).
She pointed out that the focus of the support, with regard to the EPA, was based on the issue of illegal mining, which is both a governance and a major environmental issue in the country. .
“Indeed, I visited EPA’s project at Dunkwa-on-Offin, where I could witness the use of drones, on how the use of this technology changed dramatically the monitoring compliance system, [and] how the simple fact of flying the drones make illegal miners run away from fear of being arrested,” she said.
She also noted that information management systems are powerful instruments for a more accountable and transparent government, a reason ARAP invested in digital platforms such as the Ghana Legal Web Library.
Pinpointing the successes chalked, she said institutions which were part of the ARAP framework were strengthened, since coordination among national institutions was crucial to ensure that the system works as a whole.
Critically, ARAP supported the engagement of the involved institutions with their peers at the international level, and the aim was to exchange experience and best practices from institutions, since they all share the same system of law or administrative framework.
“However, they also strengthen my conviction that the way we designed ARAP as an anti-corruption programme, aiming to strengthen the accountability institutions in a concrete, politically neutral way, with a strong accent on capacity development of the people working in them, and a push on digitalisation is the right way to go, and it will bring results over time,” she added.
According to her, key issues that might influence this year’s general elections would definitely include the resignation of the Special Prosecutor and matters bordering on corruption.
“Let’s just look at the current events in Ghana. At less than a week from general elections, [which is] expected to be hotly contested, and following the Special Prosecutor resignation, [and how] the debate on corruption is raging on the media, [and] [it] may be a factor in the decision of who will be the winner,” she postulated.
She went on to say even though it was not for her to comment on the substance of the recent events, “but they show how difficult it is to eradicate corruption, in spite of the general awareness of the huge harm it causes to the public purse, the public ethics, and the economic and social development of a country.”
The post EU ends anti-corruption training of key institutions in Ghana appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS