Your Research, Findings Are Heavily Corrupted; Dampare On GSS Corruption Report
The Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akufo Dampare has identified flaws with the findings of the corruption research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) together with the Commission on Human Rights Administration Justice (CHRAJ) and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime.
The survey themed, “Corruption in Ghana, Peoples Experiences and Views” found the Ghana Police Service to be the most corrupt among some twenty-four institutions in the country.
Given this, the IGP pointed out that although the research work was to ascertain the level of corruption in institutions in the country with public contact, it failed to cover the researchers (GSS and CHRAJ) as well as institutions like the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Audit Service, Parliament Service, Ghana National Fire Service, Gaming Commission, Public Media house, Narcotic Control Commission, National Disaster Management Organisation, Attorney General’s Department, Registrar General Department, and others.
Additionally, he said the survey lacked consistency since the research at one point segregated workers in different institutions and brought them under one umbrella as in the case of the GRA and GHS, and at another point aggregated ECG and GWCL.
The IGP described this as “a clear case of combining mangoes and orange to corrupt the flavour”.
“In specific terms, you compared the whole of the Ghana Police Service with sections of the Judicial service sections of the GRA and others.”
He added, “From our understanding, most of the institutions covered are under the Executive branch and yet you also introduced another institution named the Executive Branch of Government without offering any explanation as to what that constitutes.”
Dr. Akufo Dampare is also sceptical about the multiple levels of quality assurance the researchers used in eliminating errors due to failure to ascertain from the institution the credibility of the information obtained.
He further indicated that the value of bribes paid to officers was found as the lowest compared to other institutions, however, that was not featured in the overall rankings.
Finally, the Ghana Police boss found it surprising, the fact that the report failed to present any recommendation.
The service is therefore of the view that the research was influenced by historical stereotypes, that is, the GSS research was influenced by corruption research conducted in the past which found the police the most corrupt institution.
The GPS is also requesting responses from the researchers on some of the concerns raised including the approach used in determining the number of contacts-based ranking; the number of contacts who paid bribes as against those who were asked to pay but refused and whether those refused to pay were disadvantaged in the service they required; and a regional, monthly and departmental breakdown of the findings on the police service to enable the SErvice pinpoint where the issues are and tackle them.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
