Weak laws riddled with exemptions and poor enforcement are enabling corruption to persist in Ghana, the local chapter of Transparency International has warned, as the country’s performance on global integrity rankings continues to stagnate.
The caution came during an engagement in Accra between Fellows of Cohort 8 of the Next Generative Investigative Journalism Fellowship and Transparency International Ghana, where officials outlined why Ghana has struggled to make meaningful progress in curbing graft despite multiple reforms and institutions.
According to the Executive Director of Transparency International Ghana, Mary Addah, the core problem is not the absence of laws but the presence of significant loopholes that allow wrongdoing to go unpunished.
“You will hear people say that we have beautiful laws. The beautiful laws do not implement themselves. I am sorry to say that our laws are not as beautiful as we see them; there are many gaps in the laws that is why people take advantage of them. For instance, in the RTI laws, the first five sections, you have exemptions there; it doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Ghana’s performance on the widely cited Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) illustrates the lack of progress, officials said.
The country recorded its best score of 48 out of 100 in 2014, but has since struggled to improve. In 2024, Ghana managed only a marginal gain to 42, before inching up to 43 in 2025, a change experts describe as statistically insignificant.
Transparency advocates say such stagnation reflects deep structural weaknesses rather than isolated cases of corruption.
Global trends are equally troubling, with corruption perceived to be worsening in many countries, further complicating efforts to strengthen governance and accountability.
Madam Addah stressed that Ghana has established numerous anti-corruption bodies and legal frameworks over the past decade, yet these have not translated into substantial improvements on the ground.
One major concern is the limited effectiveness of the Right to Information Act, 2019, designed to guarantee public access to government-held information.
She argued that the law’s impact has been blunted by institutional inertia and broad exemptions that allow agencies to withhold critical information.
She observed that, in practice, many public institutions still fail to proactively disclose information, undermining transparency and accountability.
Another major weakness identified is the absence of public disclosure requirements for asset declarations by public officials, a benchmark considered essential in many countries with strong anti-corruption regimes.
“In Ghana, we don’t have a publication for asset declaration as one of the benchmarks for global good practice, and since we don’t have it, there are no standards for good deeds,” Ms Addah lamented.
Anti-corruption experts say secrecy surrounding asset declarations makes it difficult to detect illicit enrichment or conflicts of interest.
Public procurement continues to be one of the sectors most vulnerable to abuse, she said, despite the introduction of digital monitoring tools such as the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS).
While GHANEPS was designed to enhance transparency in government contracting, breaches still occur through manipulation of tender processes, contract variations and insider influence.
Transparency International Ghana also pointed to the existence of the national anti-corruption strategy, but stressed that implementation remains inconsistent.
On the issue of gifts to public officials, a frequent gateway to undue influence, Ms Addah clarified that Ghana’s legal framework requires strict neutrality in the discharge of official duties.
“A public officer should carry out his duties without taking any money, and there is a gift protocol that has been developed by the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for public officers to adapt, and within that, there are acceptable gifts you can take.”
CHRAJ provides guidelines on acceptable tokens, but enforcement, again, remains a challenge.
Beyond institutional reforms, the anti-corruption advocate urged ordinary citizens to play a more active role in demanding accountability.
She warned that corruption will persist if public officials face little scrutiny from the people they serve.
“Until we do so, people will continue to get away with some of these practices,” she said.
The latest warning from Transparency International Ghana underscores a sobering reality, which points to the fact that, without stronger laws, stricter enforcement and sustained citizen pressure, the fight against corruption may remain stalled for years to come.
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