He said the Whistleblowers’ Act offered protection against victimization as well as financial reward for citizens who reported acts of corruption happening in their communities. He said it was aimed at encouraging them to report such acts to CHRAJ for action to help fight the canker in the country.

Mr Mohammed was speaking at a mobile Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALACs) forum held at Tampion, a town in the Savelugu Municipality of the Northern Region, to engage with citizens at the community level on how they could contribute to fighting corruption.

The ALAC’s forum formed part of activities under the Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening project (ADISS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development and implemented by Ghana Integrity Initiative, Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition and SEND-Ghana.

ADISS seeks to renew and build upon on-going efforts as well as increase the capacities of anti-corruption civil society organizations to motivate citizens to pressure policy makers and institutions through a number of targeted and focused actions with the aim to reduce corruption in the country.

The forum was to provide participants with deeper understanding of how corruption worked in practice as well as inform them about existing corruption reporting mechanisms and the importance of reporting corruption.

Mr Mohammed encouraged all to join the fight against corruption, adding, citizens should also report corrupt acts to their chiefs, head of families, district assemblies, assemblymen, religious leaders as well as the police for action. Mr Alhassan Jibreel, Savelugu Municipal Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) spoke about types and forms of corruption such as grand corruption, bribery, extortion, facilitation payment, nepotism, cronyism, saying they deprived the state of needed resources for development.

He cited the culture of giving and receiving, unwillingness or fear to report corruption amongst others as hindering the fight against corruption, and urged all to partner stakeholders to fight corruption.

Mr Joseph Makido Azam, Project Officer, ALAC encouraged members of the community to take advantage of ALAC to report acts of corruption in their communities to help promote development assuring of extending assistance to victims and witnesses of corruption.