Ghanaians perceive public officials as corrupt – Afrobarometer survey

An African non-partisan survey has revealed that most Ghanaians perceive government officials as corrupt.
The Afrobarometer survey revealed that the public opinion was that a number of  government bodies, including the tax department, local government bodies, the police, Parliament, the Electoral Commission and courts of law were not considered trustworthy.
The President, ruling party and opposition parties did not fare well either.
This was revealed at a press briefing of key findings on December 2 organised by the Centre for Democratic Development in Accra.
The survey showed that the military had a better image, with 56 % of 2,400 respondents saying they trusted the armed forces “somewhat” or “a lot”.
Ghanaians also trust informal leaders such as religious and traditional leaders more.
Respondents with primary, secondary or tertiary education are much more likely than those without any education to have “a little” or “no” trust at all in public institutions or officials.
Results show a bell curve between 2002 and 2014 with public trust improving around 2005 and 2008 and then starting to decline towards 2012 and 2014.
Project Manager of the Afrobarometer report CDD Ghana, Armah Attoh said more needs to be done to address corruption as the recent survey rates the Ghana Police Service as the institution perceived to be most corrupt.
However, it was not just public institutions that were considered corrupt. Large majorities believe business executives (82%), traditional leaders (78%), and religious leaders (69%) are involved in corruption.
The survey covered 2,400 respondents located in 291 towns in 177 districts spread across 300 enumeration areas (EAs) in the 10 regions.
Afrobarometer is an African-led, non-partisan survey research project that measures citizen attitudes on democracy and governance, the economy, civil society, and other topics.