GII Defends Corruption Perception

Ghanaian ChronicleCharles Takyi-Boadu© 2007May 31, 2007GHANA INTEGRITY Initiative (GII), the local chapter of the global anti-corruption body, Transparency International has defended the use of perception as a basis for most of the findings on incidence of corruption.Though concerns have been raised by some members and corporate institutions about the credibility of such findings, the GII says, "reality supports this perception" hence should not be treated as mere perception.Programmes Officer of GII, Mr. Gilbert Sam has over the last couple of days been trying strenuously to explain to the public that, these findings are not only based on perceptions but also backed by verifiable records.He made this comments during the recent launch of 2007 global 'Corruption Perception Index', which identified corruption as still being pervasive in the judicial system.Though some of these perceptions and allegations are difficult to prove with empirical evidence, he emphasized that they cannot be ruled out outright since they do contain an element of reality.He noted that some this information's could be gathered from people who happened to have passed through those processes.Mr. Sam cited as instance when it came to light during the survey on the judiciary that one in every five people who interacted with the judicial system said they paid a bribe to either a Judge or a judiciary staff.He therefore stressed the need for people to disabuse their minds that corruption perceptions were mere and should be discarded and treated with contempt.The 2007 CPI report identified Africans as having a bleak perception of judicial corruption.With the exception of South Africa, a majority of people in seven of eight African countries polled during the survey perceived the judiciary system to be corrupt.It further identifies the African Region as having a specific set of issues when dealing with judicial corruption including political influence and direct interference in judicial process by threats, bribery and intimidation of judges as well as manipulation of appointments, salaries and conditions of service.In many of such countries, corruption is considered and viewed as an acceptable way of doing business.In Zimbabwe, the government is said to have allocated farms expropriated under the Fast-Track Land Reform programme to Judges at all levels, from lower Court Magistrates to the Chief Justice to ensure that court decisions should be in the favour the governments political interests.Whilst in Algeria, the judicial disciplinary body is often said to be influenced by the Executive arm of government, in Egypt the failure of the Public Prosecutor to address corruption and abuses by government employees has gained the office notoriety as a defender of the regime in contrast with its constitutional mandate as the 'people's defender'.However, in South Africa, few courts are not computerized and many transactions not properly recorded, providing room for corruption.An audit of magistrate offices in that country has uncovered significant misappropriation of funds with regard to maintenance, bail money, estates and deposits.Though the incidence of corruption is pervasive in most African countries, it seem to have taken an unprecedented turn in Kenya where the saying "why hire a lawyer, if you can buy a judge" has gained so much prominence.Corruption is undermining judicial systems around the world, denying citizens access to justice and the basic human rights to a fair and impartial trial, sometimes even to a trial at all.As aptly stated by Huguette Labelle, Chair of TI, "equal treatment before the law is a pillar of democratic societies. When courts are corrupted by greed or political expediency, the scales of justice are tipped and ordinary people suffer" hence "judicial corruption means the voice of the innocent goes unheard while the guilty act with impunity".