Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng says state capture, corruption and fraud are ingrained in the Ghanaian society much like rituals.
Describing the aforementioned practices as “tri-malady,” the Special Prosecutor said they manifest themselves in various forms thus inhibiting the progress of the state and dissipating its resources.
The Special Prosecutor said this during ICC FraudNet’s 37th International Conference and Meeting held in Accra on Friday, April 28, where he was the guest speaker.
The conference was under the theme; ‘State Capture and Corruption’.
“The issues of state capture, corruption, and fraud are a collective pandemic in our part of the world. This tri-malady has every intention of staying with us unless we act. In their various manifestations, they inhibit our progress and dissipate our resources. We experience their debilitating effects all around us in their full force and they are ingrained in our society much like rituals,” Kissi Agyebeng noted.
He observed that state institutions are being neutralized as appendages of individuals and existing laws adding that the legal system is being weakened for private gains.
The Special Prosecutor indicated that it will be difficult for anyone to put an actual price tag on the economic cost of state capture, corruption and fraud.
“The abuse of entrusted power for private gain is the currency. Misrepresentation of events and facts for pecuniary gain has never been this attractive. Then again, there appears to be a sprint for the inordinate control of state institutions and the public decision-making process. State institutions are being neutralized as appendages of individuals and existing laws and the legal system are being weakened for private gain.
“To further sink ourselves in our ill progress, we are flighting away and secreting our illicitly gorged up bounties in other jurisdictions to avoid detection and to evade recovery. And it seems to me that no one can put an actual price tag on the attendant social and economic cost of state capture, corruption, and fraud,” he emphasised.
Enumerating the various sectors where corruption mostly occurs, he mentioned illegal mining where the country is bedevilled with the wanton destruction of protected forests.
“These are endemic in several sectors of the economy. The usual suspect is the extractive industry. Offshore, we are confronted with the scourge of oil bunkering. On land, we are bedevilled with the wanton destruction of protected forests and real property and the mind-numbing pollution of our water bodies – mostly springing from illegal mining. Illegal capital flight and breaches of public procurement rules are rampant,” he said.
