He urged stakeholders to abandon borrowed Western models and instead adopt local, practical solutions that address the country’s specific challenges.

Mr Agyebeng said tackling corruption required sector-focused solutions and not broad, imported strategies.

He called for transparent sys­tems, strict penalties, and practical, home-grown frameworks rooted in Ghana’s societal realities.

He said this in Accra yesterday at a two-day West Africa Regional Anti-Corruption Policy Dialogue.

Theme: “Breaking Barriers: Transforming Healthcare and Edu­cation Access for Women through Inclusive Policies and Practices” Mr Agyebeng said the fight against cor­ruption must be rooted in Ghana’s own realities, values, and systems.

He said there was the need to creating a functional framework that directly addresses corruption in education and healthcare.

According to him, imported theories and academic definitions often miss the mark because they do not reflect the everyday expe­riences and institutional setups of Ghanaian society.

He stressed the need for a bottom-up, context-driven strategy that does not rely on broad slogans or foreign ideas but instead speaks directly to the corruption Ghana­ians face in critical sectors such as education and healthcare.

The Special Prosecutor called for a clear and precise definition of corruption that fits Ghana’s legal and cultural environment.

He argued that merely describ­ing corrupt acts is not enough. What is needed, he said, is a comprehensive framework within the constitution that makes clear what counts as corruption in the Ghanaian context and guides en­forcement.

Mr Agyebeng gave striking examples of corruption in the education and healthcare sectors, revealing how fraud was not just costing the state money but also hurting citizens’ access to basic services.

In the education sector, he spoke about individuals who move from district to district with laptops, issuing fake appointment letters to teachers and collecting bribes in return.

He also mentioned head teach­ers who validate ‘ghost’ work­ers—non-existent teachers who are added to the government payroll— so they can claim extra salaries. In some cases, entire non-existent schools are reported just to siphon funds from the education budget.

In healthcare, the Special Pros­ecutor warned about a disturbing trend of unnecessary surgeries be­ing performed not out of medical need but for profit.

He also cited the misuse of medical supplies and facilities as another way public resources were being drained, often at the expense of vulnerable patients.

He pointed out that these acts were not isolated incidents but signs of a deeper, systemic problem that must be tackled head-on with bold, targeted policies. Rather than applying one-size-fits-all strategies.

For his part, the Director-Gen­eral of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, emphasised a need to use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of institutions and actors in the health sector

According to him, such an approach would ensure that the manipulation of health systems by corrupt actors in the health sector was curbed, thereby leading to its improvement.

In addition, Prof. Akoriyea said that the government, through the Ministry of Health and the GHS, was committed to revising health policies to ensure inclusivity in relation to healthcare access for women and the marginalised group.

The former Director, Depart­ment of Women, Ministry of Gen­der, Children, and Social Protection (MoGCSP), Ms Francesca Po­bee-Hayford, called for a pragmatic approach in addressing the barriers to inclusive access to education and healthcare delivery.

Among the pragmatic approach­es, she said, was the deployment of health workers and teachers to remote areas to ensure inclu­sive health and education service delivery.

The West Africa Regional Advisor for Transparency Interna­tional, Mr Samuel Kaninda, called on ECOWAS to build stronger regional integration by focusing on good governance that improves citizens’ lives.

He said the fight against corrup­tion must go beyond policies and economic figures, and instead bring real change to communities, espe­cially for women, girls, and other marginalised groups.

The Board Chair of Transpar­ency International Ghana, Rev. Dr Emmanuel Kwabena Ansah, said the meeting marked a shared com­mitment to advancing accountabili­ty and integrity in West Africa.

He thanked Canada and Trans­parency International for support­ing the project aimed at improving health and education services for women and other at-risk groups by addressing corruption in service delivery.

 BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG & BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY