Ghana Ranks 3rd Most Corrupt Country.

 

Ghana is the third most corrupt among countries with vibrant media environments, and is the second most likely nation where its citizens are eager to exit to another country, according to a research carried out by Gallup.

Out of the 22 free press countries surveyed in 2012 for perception of prevalent corruption in government, Ghana scored the third worst mark of 89 percent, slightly better than the most corrupt countries – Czech Republic and Lithuania, which scored 94 percent and 90 percent respectively.

The world renowned Washington DC based research company, Gallup, released its report this week.

In the report—‘The Global State of Mind 2013’—, it indicated that Ghana is one of the most hostile countries for its nationals, who are willing to relocate to other countries due to the degrading quality of life.

This finds expression in Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah’s suggestion for anyone who is not happy in the country to pack and leave.

This urge to leave the country is only second to Syria which tops the world’s worst “Brain Drain” countries. Syria ranks number one with a score of 43 percent while Ghana is close on Syria’s heels with a score of 38 percent.

The global research group’s assessment means that citizens in countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Sudan, Botswana, Guinea and Somaliland are more content with the conditions in their respective countries than Ghanaians in Ghana.

“Through classical economics, we know the economics of every society. But no one really seems to know for sure what people are thinking or how they are feeling,” stated Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup, in his executive summary of the report.

The Gallup report was compiled in 2012 when Ghana was engulfed in scandals involving shady multi-million dollar judgment debts paid to people suspected to be close allies of the Mills-Mahama National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration.

Since then, several other scandals involving government officials and agencies have been exposed; key among them are the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandal in which private companies and government officials allegedly connived to fleece the country of millions of Ghana cedis.

The recent one is the scandal involving a controversial contract given to Subah Infosolutions, a company owned by Jospong  Group of Companies, believed to be closely aligned to the ruling NDC.

These allegations are coming at a time the Mahama-led government is preaching austerity measures and scrounging for funds from all sorts of avenues.

Alarm Bells

The trend is beginning to seriously trouble critics who are warning that    the situation is potentially explosive, particularly due to the hardships in the country which does not justify the wanton dissipation of public funds by government officials and cronies.

Some are suggesting a possible civil uprising against the government, while others are pointing at the myriads of industrial actions to be embarked upon by workers.

Kwasi Pratt Jnr, a supporter of the ruling NDC and editor of the Insight newspaper, expressed these feelings of discontent among the general public: “Anybody who is in touch with the masses knows that they are dissatisfied,” adding that if ‘praise-singers’ want the Mahama administration to succeed, then “they should not go about lying to the people in government but rather tell them the truth about the real concrete situation on the ground.”

Anger

The Executive Director of think-tank, Imani Ghana, upon his return from a trip abroad, commented on his facebook wall, “the first wave of news to hit me are all depressing. Grand theft, grand looting of the state’s purse with very little in sight of any attempts, if at all, to stem the tide. I’m becoming very scared for my life, your life and possibly that of the powers that be when I see raw and brewing anger in the eyes of the many many many disgruntled youth whose lives could have been positively affected by a fraction of the official loot. These economic and Machiavellian attempts at disenfranchising able bodies will leave them with no option than to attack us physically at some point. Sad, sad, sad.”

The Paramount Chief of the Essikado Traditional Area in the Western Region was less charitable in his remarks at a public lecture organised in Takoradi on Thursday by the Old Vandals branch of the Western Region. “We need a revolution in this country,” he fumed.

He continued, “….And unless we can do that, what is happening will keep on happening and we won’t have any future because we have reached a point in our country where people try to lie to make profit. I saw a fleet of V8s tooting their horns around, at very top speed. About four of them were empty. I looked at them and I could see my wealth being drained up by very stupid people who you and I are more intelligent than. We pay them, we elect them to serve us and they come and sit on us. And you are busily dividing yourselves into NDC and NPP, for what? I am a Vandal and a Ghanaian and it matters much more than all these things that are going on.”

Jim Clifton warns that the ratings in the ‘Global State of Mind’ report could reflect similar situations that sparked the Arab Springs across the Middle East.

“Prior to the Arab Spring, most experts looked at the rising GDPs of Tunisia and Egypt and assumed that people’s wellbeing in those countries was improving as well. That was a miscalculation of historic proportions. Even as GDPs were increasing, the Gallup World Poll showed the percentages of people with “thriving” wellbeing were crashing in both countries. Hardly anyone knew what the people were thinking — not any major institution, not any country’s intelligence agency.

“Everyone missed it. What we all learned real quickly, though, is that classical economic data do not necessarily reveal conditions for revolution. Rather, they are evident within the metrics of wellbeing and behavioural economics. Measuring GDP and highly unreliable unemployment data, as well as imports and exports, does little to forecast instability and revolution,” Mr. Clifton stated.

World Bank’s Verdict

Meanwhile, on the heels of the apparent negative indicators ascribed to Ghana, the World Bank has released its latest Doing Business Report which shows Ghana dropping five places from 62nd position to 67th out of 189 countries ranked for their favourable business environments.
Ghana, which is in the lower middle income bracket, according to the report titled “Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises”, did not fare well in most of the 10 categories.
According to the report, it is becoming more difficult starting business in Ghana with the country placing 128th on Starting a Business index.
The World Bank indicates that it will take a company as much as 14 days to start a business in the country, concluding that Ghana has not conducted any reforms to ease constraints in starting businesses.