The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) 2021 Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey has revealed that over ¢5 billion in bribes were paid in both the private and the public sector.
The report further reveals that 26.7 percent public sector officials were engaged in bribery acts with 9.1 percent of the private sector officials.
Detailing the report and it’s findings, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim noted that the Ghana Police Service took the top spot with a 53.2 percent, followed by the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Revenue Authority with 37.4 and 33.6 percent respectively.
Aside from these findings, the report said the prevalence of bribery in Ghana is 26.7 per cent.
This shows that one out of four people who had contact with a public official in the 12 months prior to the survey reported having been asked to pay a bribe by a public official, or asked to pay one but refused to do so.
“The survey revealed that, on average, there is no difference in the prevalence of bribery in rural and urban areas of Ghana. There are, however, sizable variations across the 16 regions of the country,” the report said.
At the regional level, the Bono East, Savannah and Volta regions, recorded lower corruption rate.
Their figures wee lower than that of the national rate.
The regions recorded 11.8, 14.5 and 19.1 per cent, respectively, while in the Western North, Ahafo and North East regions it is substantially higher, at 53.4, 47.0 and 41.9 per cent, respectively.
The report said “Younger adults are more likely to pay bribes than the older population. In 2021, with a prevalence of bribery of 29.9 percent, Ghanaians aged 25 to 34 years were the age group most likely to pay bribes” the report pointed out adding that “the prevalence of bribery decreased steadily to 17.6 percent among those aged 65 and over, while bribery among the youngest adult age group 18 to 24 has a prevalence of 23.9 per cent”
“One relates to the type of public official with whom people interact and the type of public services sought. It may also be common for corrupt public officials to target wealthier socioeconomic groups to a greater degree than poorer socioeconomic groups, as the former may be considered more likely to have the means to pay bribes,” the report said.
The report added that the group most likely to interact with public officials and most likely to experience bribe requests is those with the highest level of educational attainment—that is bachelor’s degree or above.
This means that Ghanaians with the highest level of tertiary education are 1.7 times more likely than people with no formal education to report that they paid a bribe, or were asked to pay a bribe but refused when in contact with a public official.
In the private sector, contact rate with private sector employees varied substantially across the regions of Ghana.
The rate was higher in the Greater Accra Region, Western and Western North regions, at 59.1, 50.0 and 45.0 per cent, respectively.
The rate was however lower in the Upper West, Oti and Bono East, with a percentage of 11.2, 17.7 and 18.5 per cent, respectively.
The contact rate with private sector employees is much higher in urban areas (46.9 per cent) than in rural areas (27.6 per cent) of the country as many more private services are more likely to be accessed in the former.
The report revealed that not only is the contact rate with private sector employees in Ghana much lower than with public officials, but also the payment of bribes to private sector employees is much less prevalent than to public officials: the prevalence of private sector bribery in 2021 was 9.1 per cent, whereas the prevalence of public sector bribery was 26.7 percent
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
