The Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Richard Quayson, has cautioned that corruption-related issues is threatening the development aspirations of the citizenry.

He explained that the hopes, aspirations and innovations of the citizenry could not be achieved if corruption was not curbed.

“Corruption is a problem affecting global economies and working against sustainable development and has been identified as a major root cause of poverty, deprivation and underdevelopment,” Mr Quayson warned.

According to him, the high prevalence of corruption had blighted the hopes and aspirations of the citizenry, given a rise to poor service delivery and lack of access to necessities of livelihoods which continued to threaten the nation’s progress, growth and development.

Mr Quayson was speaking on the 2021 Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Week and the International Anti–Corruption Day (IACD) being championed by CHRAJ which was on the theme: ‘Building a Culture of Integrity for Generations’ which sought to raise people of integrity not only for the current generation of leaders and working for the population but for the youth, students, children and future generations.

He observed that as part of global efforts addressing the corruption canker, the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) adopted Resolution 58/4 which designated December 9 to mark IACD to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of UNCAC in combating and preventing it.

Mr Quayson noted that as state party to the Convention, Ghana had always joined the international anti-corruption community to observe IACD, following the ratification of UNCAC in 2007 and her effort had culminated in adoption of the week, leading to IACD as Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Week.

“Parliament in 2014 adopted the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) as the coordinated anti-corruption policy of the nation, and the vision of NACAP is to create sustainable democratic society founded on good governance, rule of law and instilled with high ethics and integrity,” he said.

Mr Quayson indicated that the mission was to contextualize and mobilise efforts and resources of stakeholders, including the government, individuals, civil society, private sector and the media, to prevent and fight corruption through promotion of high ethics, integrity and vigorous enforcement of applicable laws.