The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has charged the Lands Commission to axe all middlemen known as “goro boys” from their operations.
The directive is in response to a study conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2021, which ranked the Lands Commission as one of Ghana’s most corrupt institutions.
While addressing the recent ranking, Deputy Minister of Lands Benito Owusu Bio said efforts are being made to clean up the commission’s operations.
“We are asking the Lands Commission to get rid of those ‘goro’ boys and the ‘goro’ people in the system. These ‘goro’ people cannot work in isolation. They can only work with the connivance and assistance of personnel within the system of Lands Commission,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources was emulating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in revamping activities at the Passport Office.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken the bold initiative to get rid of the recalcitrant and the bad nuts within their system. Likewise, we at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources are also going to follow their example to ensure that we also rid the system,” he stressed.
In response, the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, James Dadson, said plans are far advanced to digitise their operations.
He said this is to eradicate corruption from the commission’s system.
“This is a major challenge on our hands. We have identified that once we embark on this technological drive, we will reduce the human interface even our own staff will have very little to do with the general office. Everything will be done in the back office,” he said.
