Organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), in collaboration with the Lands Commission, the forum brought together representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), corruption watchers, traditional leaders and a section of the public to deliberate on land-related issues in line with the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036).

It formed part of the GII’s ongoing Land and Corruption in Africa (LCAII) project, which seeks to sensitise the general public to the Act, existing corruption reporting mechanisms and the need to report corruption to seek redress.

Land governance

The Land Act 2020 (Act 1036), which was passed by Parliament and assented by the President on December 23, 2020, has revised, harmonised and consolidated the laws on land to ensure sustainable land administration and management, effective and efficient land tenure.

Speaking at the forum, the Project Lead of the LCAII, Michael Okia, stressed the need for stakeholders to take pragmatic measures to promote good land governance and prevent the corruption that had engulfed lands across the country.

He, however, encouraged all stakeholders to be vigilant and report all land corruption related issues to the relevant authorities for redress, saying “bribery, fraud or false accounting, favouritism, nepotism, facilitation payment among others are all criminal offences and are punishable by law when caught.”

The Act

The Northern Regional Lands Officer, Samuel Atta Gyarteng, in a presentation highlighted major laws affecting the Lands Act, which include land development protection of purchasers (Act, 1960 Act2), Farm Lands Act, 1962 (Act 107,) Land Registry Act 1962 (ACT122,), Administration of Lands Act, 1962 (Act 123) among others.

He said, “section 227 prescribes the various offences of a public officer in the discharge of his duties.

Sanctions, convictions and fines have been provided for offenders in order to ensure transparency and accountability and to reduce corruption related with the Act.’’

“Large-scale land acquisition involves a transaction over a land area of 20.23 hectares or 50 acres more or less, but triggers social, economic and/or environmental concerns that need to be safeguarded,” he added.

He explained that the acquisition of large lands was to promote government developmental policy objectives by facilitating initiatives that would foster job creation, income generation and equity in resource distribution in line with Ghana’s development agenda.     

Some of the participants who spoke to the Daily Graphic called on relevant authorities to strictly enforce the law to help address issues surrounding land administration in the country.