Claim: A political critic, Bernard Mornah, says it is under President Nana Akufo-Addo that Ghana’s Presidency became a part of the Afrobarometer corruption index.
Verdict: False. The Afrobarometer reports from 2012, 2014, 2017, and 2022 showed the Office of the President has always been part of the corruption index. It was part of the index during the regimes of former Presidents John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama.
Full Text
A former National Chairman of Ghana’s People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo of doing little to combat corruption in the West African country.
Contributing to discussions on Accra-based TV3 on August 30, 2023, the former Parliamentary candidate for the Nadowli Kaleo Constituency in the Upper East region of Ghana said the current regime has elevated corruption in the country.
“For the first time in our history, the presidency has been part of the [Afrobarometer] corruption index under your [President Akufo-Addo] presidency,” he said.
According to him, “all the time we [the Afrobarometer] take(s) institutions excluding the presidency, but this time the presidency is topping.”
See the video uploaded on Accra-based TV3’s YouTube channel here, from minutes 48:41 to 49:00.
The Afrobarometer is a non-profit organisation that conducts non-partisan survey research on issues such as democracy, the economy, society, and governance. It is headquartered in Ghana.
Considering the fiery debate that usually characterises discussions about corruption in Ghana which often leads to the two dominating political parties blaming each other, DUBAWA decided to probe the claim.
Verification:
In investigating the claim made by the former PNC National Chairman, DUBAWA reviewed news reports and that of the Afrobarometer Perceptions of Corruption in Ghana from 2012 to 2022.
Checks by DUBAWA have revealed that the Office of the Presidency has been part of the institutions surveyed under the Afrobarometer Perceptions of Corruption since 2012 under former Presidents John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama.
The Afrobarometer showed that the perception of corruption at the Office of the Presidency in 2012 was 87%. This meant that about 87% of the people surveyed believed the President and officials in his office were involved in corruption.
See here for the report.
However, about 94% of the people surveyed believed the police in Ghana were more involved in corruption in 2012. This was followed by national government officials with 91%. See here for the report.
The figure for the Office of the President was 83% in 2014, the Afrobarometer revealed. This represented a reduction in the number of people who believed the President and officials in his office were involved in corruption in the country. See here for the report.
The Afrobarometer further revealed in 2017 that about 27% of respondents believed “most or all” of the officials at the Office of the President are involved in corruption, while 50% believed some are engaged in corruption.
See the report here.
However, about 11% of the people interviewed said that “none of [them]” people working at the Office of the President are involved in corruption.
According to previous reports of the Afrobarometer Perception of Corruption index, the Office of the President was again considered in the 2022 survey. See page three of the report here.
The Afrobarometer 2022 report showed that about 55% of persons interviewed believed “most/all” the people working in the Office of Ghana’s president are engaged in corrupt practices.
The report also disclosed that the Ghana police topped all the 15 public institutions surveyed, with about 65% of respondents believing that “most/all” police officers are involved in corruption.
See page 3 of the report here.
Conclusion
It is false to say that the Office of the President in Ghana was added to the Afrobaromenter corruption index only under President Nana Akufo-Addo. Reports from 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2022 showed the Office of the President has always been part of the index.
