Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior has rubbished “scientific” researches chained out by CDD-Ghana and Transparency International on corruption perception index.
“In this world you can have one research finding to support whatever you want to believe in anytime…so for me, basing our whole life on research findings is becoming tedious, unhealthy. It doesn’t help anybody,” he bewailed.
His comment follows two conflicting separate reports released by CDD-Ghana and the Transparency International on the country’s corruption rating.
The results of the round six Afrobarometer survey by governance think tank CDD-Ghana which focused on trust and perceived corruption in Ghana’s public institutions, said almost all other public sector officials fared poorly except the military.
The survey was conducted between May and June 2014 and about 2400 respondents were asked to rate public institutions including the Ghana Revenue Authority, as well as government officials and Members of Parliament.
The institutions identified as having little trust from the populace included the tax department, local government, police, parliament, ruling party, the electoral commission, president, courts of law, and the opposition.
Shortly after the aforesaid report, the Transparency International also released the 2013 Corruption Perception Index report which placed Ghana in a better position with regard to fighting corruption.
The report said Ghana is making strides in its quest to nib corruption in the bud, but Transparency International, the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, added that this does not mean corruption is not a serious problem in Ghana.
Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Index showed that Ghana scored 46 points on this year's index out of a score of 100 and ranked 63 out of 177 countries included in the survey. This means Ghana's performance is a slight improvement from the 45 points scored last year.
The score and rank means that the country performed much better than several other African countries, including South Africa and Tunisia.
Speaking on Radio Gold’s current affairs programme, Alhaji and Alhaji on Saturday, Kwesi Pratt wondered which of the reports is authentic.
“Here we have a situation in which the Afrobarometer report, only last week was telling us about how corrupt Ghana has become…there is now Transparency International report which says after all, we are doing well. We are not that bad. So which one do we believe? The Afrobarometer report or the Transparency International report?” he quizzed.
The Insight Managing Editor was quick to describe the Afrobarometer report as a problematic survey citing the sample size of 240 respondents per region as a factor.
“If you look at the caliber of people engaged in this research, they are not people like you and me. These are people who are learned, scholars and yet at the end of the day look at it…Ghana as we are; if you go and select, no matter how you do the selection, use all the scientific methods you know; you go and select 240 people per region and you interview them and you say this is how Ghanaians think…what is wrong with you? How can that represent what Ghanaians think?” he questioned.
According to Kwesi Pratt, “the people of Ghana are already suffering. This so-called research finding is just adding salt to injury,” hence the need to ignore the two reports.
Source: Myradiogoldlive.com
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