The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has engaged some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on how to promote accountability and good governance in the country.

The engagement was attended by representatives of selected CSOs in the Northern Region.

Dubbed “Regional CSOs dialogue on corruption,” it aimed to collate inputs for engagement with the three Arms of Government.

It sought to collate participants' perspectives on anti-corruption and governance issues to be incorporated into citizens' reform positions that would be used to engage the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature for an improved governance process.

It formed part of the GACC's “Building evidence for increased accountability in Ghana through a multi-stakeholder accountability initiative”, a two-year project which started in October 2020, and funded by the Hewlett Foundation.

Participants at the event analysed some of the anti-corruption issues and challenges in governance as well as suggested some reforms to reduce corruption and promote good governance for sustainable development.

Speaking on some of the challenges in governance in Ghana, some of the participants said there was over-reliance of independent institutions on the Executive Arm of Government for resources and logistics to execute their mandates.

That, they noted, compromised their independence and also undermined their ability to work diligently without any interference.

They also expressed worry over the low level of enforcement of anti-corruption laws in the country, saying there were laws to deal with corruption and its related offences but the enforcement was lacking.

They said because of the inability to enforce the laws some individuals were able to escape punishmentjust when they break the laws.

“This makes fighting corrupt practices problematic,” they said.

Participants, therefore, called on law enforcement agencies to strictly enforce laws on corruption and related practices to help mitigate the impact on national development.

Madam Rosemond Kombat, a Project Coordinator at GACC, said the project would, among others, monitor the implementation of assigned actions to key public institutions from the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) to help reduce corruption and enhance transparency and accountability in the country.

She said similar engagement would be held in other regions across the country.