Mr Stephen Ashitey Adjei, a political activist, said in a statement issued in Accra that such practices led to unbridled corruption, hence the need for the President to deploy undercover agents to investigate, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators.

It said the recent nomination of 212 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives was mostly greeted with unrests, with many New Patriotic Party foot soldiers protesting.“However, the loud protestation from party foot soldiers over many of the nominees is not the only act of indiscipline that fraught this aspect of Ghana’s democracy.

“Something worse than opposing the President’s choice of local administrative heads, bribery, is also at play. “As the nominees get ready to face confirmation votes at the various assemblies around the country, they know that they must be prepared to pay various sums of money to Assembly members to ensure that their nominations are not rejected. This is why at the Assembly level; this time of the democracy calendar is called the “Cocoa Season,” the statement said.

It said the practice was bad as it contravened PNDC Law 284, he said.

The statement said: “Both the giver and taker of bribes are guilty of bribery.”

It called on the government to initiate the system to elect MMDCEs in order to curb the practice.