As part of efforts to end the corruption in Ghana, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama says he will introduce a new action plan to tackle the menace if given the nod in December 2020.
“We will as part of an Integrity for Development action plan, launch ‘Operation Sting’,” he announced on Monday, July 27, 2020.
John Mahama disclosed this at a ceremony to outdoor his running mate, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, ahead of the 2020 polls.
According to the former president, “Operation Sting is an anti-corruption crusade, which under my watch will involve massive, far-reaching and practical governmental reforms. It will be ruthless against all corrupt political appointees and public sector workers.”
Still on corruption, John Mahama blamed President Akufo-Addo for taking Ghanaians through for years of hardship, governing with a corrupt lifestyle.
Claimed the first term of the Akufo-Addo administration has been full of nepotism, corruption, stagnation, and disenfranchising Ghanaians, he said he will change that if given the nod.
“My brothers and sisters, the 2020 election will be a referendum on the four years of Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidency – four years of nepotism, corruption, stagnation, deliberate abandoning of badly needed social infrastructure, dehumanisation, disenfranchising Ghanaians, stripping Ghanaians of their citizenship, deliberate collapse of indigenous Ghanaian businesses, massive job losses and the attendant socio-economic hardship.”
Many have criticized successive governments of failing to win the fight against corruption in the country which is estimated to cost the nation millions of cedis annually.
The menace has been on the rise, to be seen in almost, if not all organizations, institutions, or activities.
Ghana ranked 80 out of 180 countries on the 2019 global Corruption Perception Index, according to Transparency International (TI).
According to the report, Ghana scored 41 out of a possible clean score of 100 – the same score as the previous year, 2018.
Even though the NPP believes it has done better in tackling corruption since it resumed office in 2016, the NDC feels otherwise.
NDC’s Corruption Tracker Series
The National Democratic Congress, in June, launched what it calls the Corruption Tracker Series; a platform that seeks to expose misappropriation and embezzlement of state funds by officials of the Akufo-Addo government.
According to the party, the tracker will help Ghanaians appreciate how corruption within the Akufo-Addo government is denying them of basic needs.
The party says the initiative will give Ghanaians evidence of failed promises under the Akufo-Addo government.