A study on the commitment of the two dominant political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has revealed that the NPP regime appears to have done relatively better than the NDC in the fight against corruption.

The study which was conducted by Penplusbytes compared how the NDC and NPP performed with respect to the implementation of promises contained in their respective winning manifestos (2012 for the NDC and 2016 for the NPP) in relation to corruption.

Out of the about 1000 respondents across the 16 regions of Ghana interviewed on how the two political parties have performed with respect to anti-corruption issues that were captured in their winning manifestos during their three years in office, 51 per cent agreed that the NPP was implementing its 2016 manifesto in terms of the fight against corruption while 34 per cent agreed that the NDC was able to implement its 2012 manifesto promises on fighting corruption.

Rating the parties based on the Trace Bribery Risk Matrix scores which gauged the fight against bribery and corruption with respect to the risk of doing business in Ghana between 2014-2019, the average risk of doing business under the NDC regime was higher than the NPP regime.

Between 2014 and 2016, the average risk under the NDC on a scale of 0-100 was 69 while between 2017 and 2019, the average risk under the NPP, was 46.3.

Discussions

Discussing the findings of the report at the Ghana National Forum on Political Party Manifestos organised by Penplusbytes in partnership with Media General Group Election Command Centre in Accra last Wednesday, a research consultant at Penplusbytes, Dr George Grandy, said manifesto promises on corruption were no longer publicity documents to win elections.

“The electorate and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are prepared to hold political parties to their promises and keep the pressure on them,” he added.

The forum brought together representatives of political parties, CSOs and some electorate to discuss the relevance of political manifestos in the fight against corruption and assess the commitment of the NDC and the NPP to curbing corruption during their tenure.

Minimalist approach

Sharing his thoughts on the commitment of the NDC and the NPP manifestos in tackling corruption, the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Kwasi Prempeh, described the efforts of the two parties as “minimalist and lacking measurable outcomes and benchmarks”.

He said the political party policies on corruption were usually vague and did not clearly spell out how they were going to tackle critical issues.