‘Use civil law remedies to fight corruption’

The Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh, has advocated the use of civil law remedies to fight corruption in the country.

He said the over-reliance on state prosecutors or the centralised government as a panacea to win the war on corruption was not sufficient to achieve the needed objective.

Prof. Prempeh was addressing the fifth Faculty of Law Jurists’ Conference of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Friday.

It was on the theme: “The urgent need to win the fight against corruption to ensure Ghana’s Sustainable Development; the Role of the Law.”

Fighting corruption

“If we use criminal law, we are relying only on state prosecution or centralised government. If that institution drops the ball, then we are doomed,” he said.

Prof. Prempeh added that the centralised government institutions were bogged down with limited capacity in terms of staff and other resources.

He further argued that the state prosecution regime played the roles after the crime had been committed, saying the system disempowered the citizenry and did not give them the initiative to fight the scourge.

Underscoring the need for additional tools to fight corruption, Prof. Prempeh stressed the need to adopt a general moral crusade, involving the clergy, Imams, traditional leaders and civil organisations as the way forward.

Right to Information

Prof. Prempeh said the Right to Information (RTI) Bill and other administrative laws that regulated discretion in the hands of public officers, were important to cure the issue of “where is the evidence.”

“If there is confidence in the system, if there is transparency and accountability then we are heading towards addressing the issues of corruption in the country,” he stated.

He expressed delight with the urgency being put in place by the Auditor General and the Office of the Special Prosecutor in fighting corruption, saying, “we should also make efforts at ploughing back from the offenders for development programmes.

Corruption canker

Speaking on “Corruption: A National Canker- The Use of Multidisciplinary Approach to Prevent and Eradicate It,” a Justice of the Court of Appeal and Director, Judicial Training Institute, Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei, said the laws on corruption or corruption-related offences should be synchronised to ensure that the accused persons were treated equally and enjoyed the same benefit and sanction.

He added that Witness Protection laws should be made available in all corruption cases to protect witnesses who would provide evidence to the Office of the Special Prosecutor.