CORRUPTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF GHANA

Abstract

Corruption is a major phenomenon not only in developing countries. It is seen as the major obstacle to sustainable economic, political and social development, particularly for developing economies. Notwithstanding, the successes gained by Ghana in good governance and democracy, corruption remains the bane of the society, inherently rooted and widespread in all sectors of the country (the legislature, executive and judiciary organs of the government) thereby stifling Ghana’s economy growth. As a contribution to the debate over corruption, this paper reviews the causes of corruption in developing countries and the economic, political, social and cultural implications of corruption on development. The causes of corruption in Ghana is also examined in terms of the influence on the political economy, the social and cultural structure, the national economy and the mechanisms put in place to tackle corruption. The impact of corruption was observed to be enormous manifesting to the loss of billions of cedis that should be invested in improving the development of the country, thus harming the poor people extremely. Various regulatory and institutional mechanism have been devised to address corrupt practices. But the implementation and effectiveness of these mechanisms have been thwarted by the lack of political will over the years. However, in recent time there appears to be an agency in fighting corruption with the establishment of the special prosecutor for the sole purpose of prosecuting corrupt public officials.