GHANA Country Profile

Police

Individual Corruption

According to several surveys and reports (e.g. Transparency International 2009, Global Integrity 2008 and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2006), Ghanaians consider the Ghana Police Service to be one of the most corrupt and dishonest agencies in Ghana. The traffic police are known to extract unofficial fees directly from drivers. According to the US Department of State 2008, police officials in Ghana are repeatedly criticised for corruption or negligence of their duties and, in addition, for acting wrongfully with impunity. The same source further notes that low salaries, which are sometimes not paid on time, contribute to the tendency to solicit bribes.


Business Corruption

Companies report that both regular and traffic police are the most frequent recipients of unofficial payments. According to Transparency International’s Bribe Payers Index 2008, business executives interviewed perceived the police to be the most corrupt  among a number of institutions and assigned it a score of 4.6 (1 refers to ‘not at all corrupt’ and 5 refers to ‘extremely corrupt’). Further, according to Global Integrity 2008, the police are often condemned in the media for demanding bribes when handling court cases and for demanding bribes from motorists during vehicle registration. Companies should thus be aware of the potential for encountering demands for bribes from the police when dealing with court matters and vehicle registration.

Political Corruption

Inspector-Generals of the police are appointed by the President, leading to concerns being raised that the police function as a political instrument of the ruling political party.

Although the police are widely perceived as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, no effective mechanism to handle complaints of corruption against the police is in place. This means that police officers are rarely prosecuted, disciplined or dismissed. People rarely report corruption to the police through the criminal justice mechanism due to long bureaucratic procedures and a lack of legal protection for prosecution witnesses. Consequently, no cases of corruption have been prosecuted in the past 10 years through the criminal justice mechanism (prosecution is handled by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the Serious Fraud Office).

Frequency

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010:
- Business executives give the reliability of Ghana's police services to enforce law and order a score of 3.8 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'cannot be relied upon at all' and 7 being 'can always be relied upon').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 63% of households who had contact with the police in 2008 report to have paid a bribe.

Afrobarometer: Summary of Results Ghana 2008
- 86% of Ghanaian households surveyed perceive the police to be involved in corruption.