The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition, Mrs. Beauty Emefa Narteh says it has always been the norm for governments in power to be displeased with the works of the various Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
This, according to her, is because, these CSOs are branded as not being fair due to their criticisms on government policies and programmes.
“From my experience, CSOs over the years have always been branded by government. We’ve had governments always thinking CSOs are out to do things that may not be in their favour. But interestingly, the trend also shows when these governments are in opposition, suddenly, it is the same resources that CSOs churn out that these same parties in opposition use for their political campaign.
“We have been consistent in holding governments to account. It is on record that the NDC accused CSOs of being rather harsh on them as compared to the NPP government. It only shows that we are doing our work,” she told host of JoyNews’ Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini on Saturday.
Mrs. Beauty Emefa Narteh who was speaking on the fight against corruption and the gains alleged to have been made by the Akufo-Addo-led government said, Ghanaian must be worried that although resources are allegedly being allocated, its intended purpose, that is to end the canker, is not being felt.
“The President if you recall, when he went for the bar conference talked about the kind of investment he has made in the resource allocation and he even repeated same when we met with him in terms of the investment he is making to support the fight against corruption.
“Our worry is that if we are actually putting in a lot of resources and the data we have is not consistent with the resources being pushed into the fight against corruption, then every Ghanaian should be worried.”
Her comment follows assertions made by President Akufo-Addo during a meeting with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition at the Jubilee House.
While reiterating his commitment to the fight against corruption, the President revealed that his administration, since 2017, had increased resource allocations to anti-corruption institutions such as Parliament, the Judiciary, Police, EOCO, and CHRAJ, among others.
But Mrs Beauty Emefa Narteh insists some questions must be asked on how these resources have been utilized and if they are being used for their primary purpose.
“Are the resources being used to effectively support the work that should be done? Are the strategies for the resources in consonance with for instance, the National Anti-corruption plan, which is Ghana’s ten-year strategy we adopted in 2014? So if the National Anti-corruption plan, we agreed on a holistic approach to the fight against corruption, if we are effectively supporting that with resources, are we implementing it as suggested.
“If not, why and if yes, why are we not getting the results?” she quizzed.
