ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
In his foreword on the General Assembly resolution adopting the Convention, Kofi Annan stated that “Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies.
It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.”
Unhappily, these words ring ever too forcefully in Ghana as corrupt practices debase our progress, and our performance on the corruption perception index compiled by Transparency International has been marked by perennial underachievement.
Yet, Ghana is taking remarkable steps in the quest to suppress and repress corruption.
The recent amendment of the Criminal Offences Act under the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1034) upgrading corruption and corruption-related offences from misdemeanours to second degree felonies is indicative of a reckoning of the destructiveness of corruption and a desire to stem the tide of such offences by imposing stiffer sentences on offenders.
Ghana made its most definitive statement on the strife against corruption with the passage of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) which came into force on 2 January 2018 and established the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as the gold standard and flagship specialized independent anti-corruption agency, in pursuance of the Convention, with the object of investigating and prosecuting specific cases of alleged or suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in the public and private sectors, recovering the proceeds of such acts by disgorging illicit and unexplained wealth and taking steps to prevent corruption.
The notable advancement is that the OSP is fortified with the cure of the inadequacies of the existing anti-corruption agencies by being designed as a comprehensive anti-graft agency with investigative, prosecutorial, intelligence gathering, surveillance and countersurveillance, police, national security and revenue generating powers.
The OSP is thus a vital institution for economic development.
The OSP has completed a review of all the alleged cases of corruption and corruption-related offences before it.
Currently, the OSP is investigating thirty-one (31) active cases and it will in due course commence the prosecution in the courts of the cases it considers probatively strong.
There is no case commenced by the OSP pending in the courts at the moment.
The assignment and full dedication by the Government of a ten-storey building at South Ridge, Accra for the sole use of the OSP and the steps taken and being taken by the Office of the President and the Chief of Staff in the establishment and maintenance of the OSP are highly commendable and a testament to a commitment to the fight against corruption.
Upon my assumption of office on 5 August 2021 as the second Special Prosecutor of the Republic, I noticed that the OSP had not been operationalised and it was without its own staff and necessary resources.
The fight against corruption had, in effect, been thrown in reverse for three (3) years.
I immediately triggered the processes to set up and operationalise the Office, to staff it with specialized trained personnel and to fit it with the required material resources and equipment.
By so doing, the fight against corruption has been resuscitated and we will carry on the renewed fervour during my tenure in office.
As the institution specifically tasked with taking steps to prevent corruption, I resolve that in the coming year the OSP will institute and strengthen measures to prevent, suppress and repress corruption more efficiently and effectively than has ever been done in this Republic.
This should portend hope that Ghana is taking concrete steps to drive down the incidence of corruption.
I have commenced engagement with law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies including the Attorney General’s, National Security Secretariat, Ghana Police Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Economic and Organised Crime Office, and the Financial Intelligence Centre.
I have opened insightful interactions and meetings with foreign and diplomatic missions and international organisations in accordance with our mutual legal assistance regime and that of the Convention.
I have invited the participation and collaboration of anti-corruption civil society, non-governmental and community-based organisations, the media, and investigative journalists to support the work and operations of the OSP in our collective effort in combating corruption.
I state with gratification that the response has been enthusiastic.
From January 2022 the OSP will institute, as part of its pressure-for- progress drive, an Annual Ghana Corruption League Table to assess perceived levels of public sector corruption in the estimation of experts and business people.
In aid of this, public agencies would be ranked against each other on a corruption barometer and the results would be publicised every 9 December.
The OSP would also require all public institutions, departments, agencies, and companies to prepare and submit Integrity Plans intended at assessing deficiencies in their regulations, procedures, policies, guidelines, administration instructions and internal control mechanisms to determine their vulnerability and exposure to corrupt practices and the prescription of curative measures to manage such susceptibility to corruption and corruption-related offences.
I am setting up internal control mechanisms to prevent corruption at the OSP itself.
The OSP would carry out anti-corruption risk assessment and review of all major public contracts, legislation and draft legislation.
This is intended to avoid toxic deals and the prevalence of judgment debts and arbitral awards.
The Office would also undertake continuous education and information of the public and the publicising of detected acts of corruption.
The OSP would vigorously investigate and prosecute cases of alleged or suspected corruption and corruption-related offences and recover proceeds of such offences through property tracing of tainted property and currency in line with our vision of rendering corruption a costly enterprise.
I look forward to the provision of adequate funding and the necessary material resources as stipulated in Articles 6 and 36 of the Convention to carry out this most challenging and solemn mandate.
I cannot help but state that without adequate funding and the provision of the necessary material resources, the good intentions of my staff and I would remain just good intentions with nothing concrete to show for it.
As we mark International Anti-Corruption Day and anti-corruption week, I invite all well-meaning Ghanaians to renew our mindsets and collectively help to turn the negative narrative of corruption to transform this Republic and place it on a solid developmental track.
On this score, we must draw on the wisdom of hindsight in our pursuit of a fairer society.
We cannot continue on the path of see-no-evil-hear-no-evil.
Let us expose the evil of corruption and let us eschew corrupt practices – as we bear in mind that ours should be a life of live-and-let-live in the national interest.
We must transform our thinking and psyche from a ritualistic gift-giving society marked by undeserved attainment of wealth to secure undue advantage in all spheres of life to one of merit-based rewards.
This is our sure chance to curb corruption and we cannot miss this opportunity.
KISSI AGYEBENG Special Prosecutor
Read below the full speech by presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the 2nd Aliu Memorial Lectures on Tuesday December 9, 2014.
Aliu Mahama served as a vice president under the Fourth Republic for eight years in Mr.
Kufuor’s government.
Among other things, Akufo-Addo lauded President John Mahama for adopting his free SHS 2012 campaign promise.
“If President Mahama is indeed introducing free SHS in the 2015/16 academic year, I will say hallelujah, and be thankful to the Almighty for this particular road to Damascus moment,”, he said.
Read the entire speech below: “ONE GHANA: SECURING OUR FUTURE” It was with great pleasure, tinged with considerable sadness, that I accepted the invitation from my good friend, Kwasi Abeasi, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Aliu Mahama Foundation, to be the second speaker in the series of the Foundation’s Annual Memorial Lectures.
Pleasure, because, having missed last year’s inaugural lecture delivered, according to my information, with panache and verve by Mahamudu Bawumia, I would be able, today, to bear testimony to the distinguished statesman in whose honour the Foundation and these Memorial Lectures have been instituted.
Shakespeare’s inimitable language, in the mouth of Mark Anthony, during his celebrated funeral oration for Julius Ceasar, captures it best: “He was my friend, faithful and just to me.”
Dependable friend, faithful colleague, just leader – the attributes of Aliu Mahama.
The first of his faith in our history to occupy the high office of Vice President of the Republic, his conduct in that office was a credit to all Moslems, and, indeed, to all Ghanaians.
Proud Dagomba, he personified the best traits of the Ghanaian character – patriotic, responsible, tolerant.
I remember the first speech he made to the gathered ranks of the NPP at our Congress in Ho in 2000, soon after his nomination as running mate to then candidate J.A.
Kufuor, with whom he partnered to give the Fourth Republic its best government so far.
“Here I stand, a Zongo boy”, he said, “and I am proof that our nation provides opportunities for all to aspire to and reach the highest ranks”.
The theme, “One Ghana: Securing Our Future” is one of which he would certainly have approved.
Our long-standing friendship survived the outcome of the epic 17-man competition for the 2008 presidential candidature of our Party, in which we both featured.
It was, in fact, a reflection of the man that he embraced with such evident sincerity the ambitions of his successor as the NPP’s vice presidential candidate, Mahamudu Bawumia, to whom he became an invaluable mentor and guardian.
I daresay that the relative success of our 2012 campaign in his home region of the North, which saw the number of our parliamentary seats go from 3 in 2008 to 10 in 2012, was in no small measure due to his active involvement in that campaign.
His departure to meet His Maker was all too soon, and I speak as a contemporary!
Hence my sadness.
It appears, though, that he is missed not just by us in the NPP, but also across the political divide.
The recent gesture by the current NDC government of President John Dramani Mahama to dedicate our National Sanitation Day to him was one all right thinking Ghanaians appreciate.
It reinforces the manner in which his dignified widow, Hajia Ramatu Mahama, and his children, led by his son Farouk, are keeping alight the flame of his memory.
They are to be warmly commended.
Aliu, may Almighty God continue to bless you and give your soul peaceful rest.
We have to put our nation into good shape.
We have a hard working and eager people.
Our land is blessed with riches.
We need a leadership that has the competence and care to make these riches work for the people and reach every home and family.
Our task is clear.
We have to make Ghana work by ensuring that our nation works in a way that a nation serious about the welfare of its people, about its progress and about its place in the world should work.
That is how we best secure our future.
Our topic, “One Ghana: Securing our Future”, is apt for it reflects the spirit of the times: our concerns as a people, our aspirations as a nation.
It is a theme that can be painted on a broad canvas, but for my purpose tonight, I want to concentrate on a few key elements.
These are (i) the establishment of good governance in our state which is respectful of the liberties and rights of our people, and which upholds the values of honesty and integrity in the discharge of the State’s responsibilities (ii) the widespread acquisition and application of knowledge by the population through education, skills training, innovation and technology (iii) the transformation of the economy through the rapid expansion and modernisation of our agriculture and industry (iv) the vigorous promotion of enterprise and private sector investment, indigenous and foreign and (v) the central role Ghana must play in hastening the process of creating a genuine regional market out of ECOWAS.
Let us start with the concept of One Ghana.
Of course, there is only one entity called Ghana, a political whole and within one geographical entity.
This entity is made up of peoples from different ethnic backgrounds and cultural practices who speak different languages.
Not too long ago, you could tell what group someone belongs to from his clothes, his food or the music he plays at home.
Today, it is a brave person that would conclude that a man wearing a smock is necessarily a Northerner or a family having banku and fetri soup are Anlos or the young lady dancing intricate Adowa steps is an Ashanti.
The things that differentiate us are no longer seen as obstacles to building a harmonious society.
Every child in school in Ghana today knows he or she has to rely on gari to survive the hunger pangs of a growing child in between meals.
We are getting comfortable with each other’s backgrounds.
In the past 22 years a consensus has emerged about how we should govern ourselves and in my view, multi party, constitutional rule is the most potent binding instrument to keep Ghana one.
But as President Kufuor said on the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence, freedom, or if I might amend that saying, democratic rule, is not a monument to be saluted every once in a while, it is a living flame that should be constantly fuelled, or else the light goes out.
We have come to terms with how we wish to govern ourselves, today and in the future.
We are also agreed that securing this safer and improved future is best done in the knowledge we have a shared destiny.
The dreams and hopes of every individual and family are dependent on the freedom, opportunity and security of each other.
To ensure that we have the atmosphere that engenders the hard work that brings the prosperity we all aspire to, citizens must have confidence in the governance system and the rule of law.
Let us start from the beginnings: what kind of future do we envisage for the children who are born today in this country?
According to the current statistics, less than half the number of children born in Ghana today are going to have their births registered.
Therein lies the genesis of the lack of reliable data for all sectors of our society.
It is manifested in dubious voting registers and in our Under-17 football team being disqualified for fielding overage players.
No modern society functions effectively without reliable data and we should start with making sure every child born in Ghana is registered.
Many aspects of our national life are not functioning properly and this undermines all the best laid plans.
Securing the future means planning.
It begins with planning the size of our families to make sure we have the number of children we can look after.
Between 1960 and 2010, a span of some 50 years, Ghana’s population grew by nearly 400%, from 6.79 million to 24.6 million, faster than the regional and continental growth of 353% and 351%, respectively.
Much as a young, fast expanding population can provide the fuel for rapid economic development, it can also generate potentially unbearable social pressures if not properly managed.
Each one of us must accept personal responsibility and make the individual hard choices that lead to the public good.
The foundation to the Ghana that we aspire to is an educated population.
There is no shortcut or alternative route to building a prosperous nation without educating the people.
It is time to ensure that every child born in this country attends school.
The process starts from registering every birth and monitoring the progress of the children to ensure that no child falls through the net.
Every child should go to school and start with kindergarten and stay in school until they finish senior high school.
We secure our future and build the prosperous Ghana we all want when every child goes to school and stays in school till he or she finishes senior high school.
This is a subject on which I have had a lot to say in the past six to seven years.
It is a subject on which the NPP has spent a lot of time and energy.
It is a subject that a consensus appears to be emerging in the country: we must redefine basic education to mean kindergarten to Senior High School and it must be free and compulsory for all children.
I would reiterate the importance of teachers in making this possible.
The Ghana that we envisage would place teachers in an important, respectable status.
Teachers would be well trained and properly remunerated.
After all, they play the front line role in moulding the workforce that would transform our economy.
The secure future we envisage would mean that our education system would place the proper emphasis on the teaching of the sciences, mathematics, engineering, enterprise and innovation.
Above all, it must move away from rote learning and stress the capacity to think, and so enhance our ability to solve problems.
No longer should mathematics strike terror in the hearts of some children, but we shall as a people help build a happy atmosphere in schools for our children and for their teachers.
I understand that some people are curious to find out what I think of the recent announcement by the government of the adoption of a free SHS policy.
I will say this: a lot of work was done on our free SHS policy.
There are in this country today several people who are quite knowledgeable on the subject and who spent a lot of time anticipating the various difficulties that would confront the country in implementing the policy.
They will be happy to share their knowledge if they are asked.
I need to state here one of my fundamental beliefs: the NPP’s fortunes do not depend on the NDC failing.
If President Mahama is, indeed, introducing free SHS in the 2015-2016 academic year, I would say alleluia and be thankful to the Almighty for this particular road to Damascus moment.
It means that we all now agree that it is both doable and necessary.
We have at the same time to insist that technical and vocational education receive the attention that had been designated for it in the education reforms of 2007 and under the Education Act of 2008.
We must support and encourage tertiary level education to provide the intellectual muscle for our development.
Much of what needs to be done in the educational front requires a lot of money and this must necessarily come from public resources, but a lot can be done by inspiring the people of Ghana to bring their ideas and enterprise.
Securing our future means our educational system, and especially the public schools must have a reputation for quality and for excellence across board.
We cannot afford to have differing standards of education depending on how rich or poor a parent is.
The tragedy for our education is that the middle classes have opted out of the public school system at the most critical stage, which is the basic school level.
They put their children in private schools and the public schools are deprived of the inputs the articulate middle classes would otherwise contribute to the running of the public schools.
It is in all our interests that the public schools are as well-equipped as possible so all our children get a fair chance at realizing their potential.
It is in the circumstances for government to make a conscious effort to redress the balance.
One Ghana is dependent on a sound education for all Ghana’s children.
The burning subject of the economy is obviously something that has more of an immediate effect than education.
On this subject too, I believe there is a consensus.
The people of Ghana want their government to create an enabling atmosphere for entrepreneurs to go about their businesses and to make sure that the public service works efficiently and honestly.
The people of Ghana expect their government to run the affairs of the country so that the weak and vulnerable will be protected and social services are managed for the public good.
According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, out of 144 countries studied worldwide, Ghana’s budget deficit was better than only three other countries.
We placed 141st.
Ghana’s annual rate of inflation was better than just four other countries.
The Government’s debt as a percentage of GDP has grown, putting us at 100 on the list.
And yet significant portions of Ghana’s debts were wiped out just a decade ago.
In manufacturing, we managed 107th place.
On health, we were ranked better than only 22 other countries, even though a few years ago our National Health Insurance Scheme was hailed around the world.
On primary education we were 116th.. Ghana’s infrastructure, including roads, electricity and internet, was deemed the 110th best out of 144 countries.
It is clear that we are not doing very well.
We do not have very much to be proud of today, never mind not having very much to show that would secure our future.
Some of us think that acceptance of criticism means we are running Ghana down.
The truth is the very opposite.
Facing reality can only help us charter a better course for our future and collective survival.
I was in Seoul, Korea last month, and came back home with mixed feelings.
What I saw made me sad.
I was sad to see how a nation, together with which we started the journey of freedom in 1957, transformed its economy to become a first world economy, while we struggle to keep our lights on.
And yet at independence, Ghana was seen as the better bet to succeed.
At the same time, I was hugely encouraged by what Korea had managed to do within a generation.
This strengthened my belief that it is possible to turn Ghana round and transform our economy and society within a short period also.
But what has led to this vast disparity in fortunes between the two countries?
The Koreans have had nearly as many coups d’état as Ghana.
They succeeded because of competent, decisive, results-oriented, disciplined and principled national leadership; because systems were made to work.
It’s about obeying the rules of the game; it’s about developing the people’s pride in the national paradigm that is set; it’s about applying and maintaining market-sustaining incentives; it’s about giving workers the incentives to excel; it’s about investing in human capital; it’s about spending wisely and boldly on infrastructure, research and technical education; and it’s about never shirking your patriotic responsibility as public servants to spend public funds strictly according to value for money.
That is why today, South Korea, with a population twice that of Ghana, has an economy 27 times the size of Ghana’s.
That is why the average person in Korea today is 14 times better off than the average Ghanaian.
And this demonstrates the size of the task that we have to accomplish to secure our future.
In 2009, the NDC was handed the best economy inherited by any new government since the 1960s, with oil coming in and a debt-to-GDP ratio of just 29%.
In the last few months to the 2012 election, we all saw the reckless spending the NDC government undertook in a desperate move to hold on to power.
The budget deficit alone for that year was the same as the entire national budget for 2008.
Today, we are all suffering the consequences of those irresponsible actions.
When I checked this morning, I was told that we have some $1.5 billion in our net foreign reserves, just enough to cover two weeks of imports.
And our debts are so big that we are using four times the money we expect from producing oil this year to service interest payments alone in 2014.
I also learnt that for 2015, the rate of growth of our economy is expected to be much smaller than it has been this year.
The expected growth rate – 3.9% – would be the worst since the year 2000.