Resource Anti-Corruption Institutions With Money, Power And Logistics To Fight Graft – Mary Addah
Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Madam Mary Awelana Addah, has called for adequate resourcing of anti-corruption institutions to enable them effectively execute their mandate.
Speaking on Thursday, September 10, 2026, at the National Anti-Corruption Dialogue held at the British Council in Accra on the theme “From Commitment to Delivery: Reviewing the Mahama Administration’s Anti-Corruption Agenda After 18 Months,” Madam Addah said financial and logistical support is critical to the fight against corruption.
“It is very important. Not just the finances. We need to give them the power. We need to give them the money. We need to give them all the logistics they need to be able to prosecute the agenda,” she said.
She explained that under the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) framework, there is a proposal for government to benchmark resources from certain sectors to guarantee assured and secured financing for anti-corruption bodies.
“In states where financing is assured and secured, like we are proposing again within the NACAP framework by talking about government looking at some sectors and some areas within which it can benchmark some of these resources, then it means there is assurance that if there are investigations, they can prosecute them, knowing they have the resources, knowing they have the logistics,” she noted.
Madam Addah said this has been the consistent call of civil society.
“That is clearly very important, and that has been the call of civil society in many instances. Wherever I have spoken, I have said anti-corruption institutions must be resourced financially, technically, to ensure that they are effective. Otherwise, when you constrain them, they are not able to. It is like you have caged a bird; it is not able to fly. It is with money they can fly,” she stressed.
Entrench Anti-Corruption Fight In The Constitution
The GII Boss also called for grounding Ghana’s anti-corruption fight beyond statutes by entrenching it in the Constitution.
“I believe without a doubt that we need to ground our anti-corruption fight beyond statutes, and with statutes you can manage them. With a constitution, it is more difficult. It should be entrenched,” she stated.
She referenced CHRAJ, which was written into the Constitution as an anti-corruption, human rights and ombudsman institution to guarantee independence and clarity of mandate.
“When you look at the Constitution, CHRAJ, which was supposed to be an anti-corruption institution, human rights and ombudsman institution, was written into the Constitution. It is for that purpose, for the purpose of independence, for clarity of mandate and for the substantive act to be able to execute and prosecute the agenda,” she explained.
Madam Addah said the current National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Action Plan proposed by consensus that some of the powers of CHRAJ should lead to the establishment of an independent Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission written into the Constitution.
“So that was written by consensus in the NACAP, and so the expectation was that we are going to see that manifest. The Constitutional Review Committee did that. It has written an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission that is independent, written into the Constitution,” she said.
She added that government’s position paper supports the move via statute, with submissions already made into the Conduct of Public Officers Bill currently before Parliament.
“The government position paper says it should be done by statute, and already they have made some submissions into the current bill that is the Conduct of Public Officers Bill that is currently in Parliament. We have been engaging the committee,” she disclosed.
