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President John Mahama has intensified moves to fight �perceived� corruption in the government by writing to all ministers of state giving them deadlines to implement the Auditor General�s (AG�s) report as it pertains to their various sectors. The President in his effort to stamp out corruption stressed that ministers would be required to either surcharge persons for state resources misapplied or in cases where it is recommended hand over to the Attorney General any persons found culpable of misappropriating government finances. �Failure to implement the AG�s report by the deadline will attract severe sanctions on the minister concerned,� President Mahama sounded this word of caution when he opened a high level conference on the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) in Accra today (Monday). NACAP The NACAP is a national plan for action to combat corruption in Ghana in the next ten years. Its purpose is to create a sustainable democratic society in the country. President Mahama as Vice President in December 2009 inaugurated the Working Group on the NACAP. For two years the Working Group diligently undertook the task of studying the patterns as well as the perceptions of corruption in Ghana in order to devise the most effective and efficient strategies for combating it. The Working Group successfully coordinated the development of NACAP and in October 2011, it present the NACAP document for validation at the Second National Integrity Conference that, as Vice President, I had the privilege of opening. Exposures President Mahama indicated that as of July 2013, more than 300 individuals were on remand for corruption and related offences. In respect to allegations of corruption at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) the President remarked that there were on-going prosecutions of public officials involved, including former high-ranking officials. He said service providers who breached the terms of their contracts were being held to account to refund the monies to the government. �But does this mean that GYEEDA, and all the positive work that it was intended to do in our communities, must now be abandoned?,� he quizzed. �The same question can, and should, be asked of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA.) An audit report revealed many loopholes in the financial administration procedures of the organisation, and so audit recommendations were made�. President Mahama also touched on investigations at the National Service Secretariat where audits confirmed weaknesses in the payroll administration and specific tip-offs by a whistleblower. Corruption President Mahama who described corruption as a stain on the society and an enemy of progress to the nation said the canker undermined the very principles of democracy. �That is why, as far back as the very beginning of my tenure as Vice President, I have committed myself to minimising corruption, especially at the top levels of government, by intensifying the battle against it,� he said. The President explained that perception and reality were not always in agreement and that sometimes �how we believe things to be is not necessarily how things actually are�. He noted that each president in this country had been accused of being corrupt, of allowing corruption to persist adding that each administration had, at some point, been accused of steering Ghana into the worst period of corruption in its history. �The one thing those consistent allegations reveal is that corruption in Ghana has become institutionalised. This should be of grave concern to all of us. It is my hope that this concern will fuel the discussions being held today, and will help us reach a consensus, and put in place rigid measures to rid Ghana, as much and as quickly as possible, of corruption,� President Mahama intimated. For President Mahama, NACAP offered the country an initial blueprint and a practical operational mobility in the battle against corruption. He was particularly pleased that in July this year the NACAP was unanimously adopted by Parliament. Action According to the President, words on a piece of paper regardless of what that document was including the Constitution; were nothing more than �words on a piece of paper� averring that it was people who breathed life and power into words to give them meaning and make them matter. �However detailed and impressive a strategy we devise with NACAP, it can only succeed with the full participation of the people,� President Mahama added. Participation, he explained, required more than an assignation of responsibility to the government and other societal leaders to wage the battle of corruption on the people�s behalf. He underscored the need to move beyond false perceptions and built-in protections and start facing the facts.