“Now is
the time to act!” That is the message of the 18th International Anti-Corruption
Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was opened Monday by the Danish Prime
Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. The conference is cohosted by Transparency
International and the government of Denmark and brings together more than 1,500
participants including heads of state, civil society actors, the private sector
and journalists from more than 120 countries.
Ghana
has sent a very strong delegation to Denmark including – among others – the
Deputy Minister of Finance Kwaku Kwarteng, Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo,
Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K. Amidu and representatives of media and civil
society. The two ambassadors of Ghana to Denmark, Amerley
Ollennu Awua-Asamoa, and Denmark to Ghana, Tove Degnbol, are also
participating.
Deputy
Minister of Finance Kwaku Kwarteng agrees, indeed, that time has come to act:
“We don’t have any choice. We cannot continue to talk and talk. I think there
is a general change in attitude and a realization that we have acted less than
we have spoken. We have had many of these conferences in the past without
really acting. I hope – and I am confident – that we will leave this conference
with better resolve to implement the conclusions, so that the next time, we are
here, we shall discuss progress and how we can even have more progress.”
Auditor
General Daniel Yaw Domelevo was also optimistic: “It is such an inspiration to
hear what other countries are doing, and I am confident that the inspiration we
get here will be put to immediate action in Ghana.”
Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative,
the Ghanaian chapter of Transparency International, emphasised the broad
anti-corruption alliance represented at the conference: ”Fighting corruption cannot be the work of only one person. We need
collaborative efforts by government institutions, civil society, media and the
private sector. Only when we come together – as at this conference – and work
together, we are able to end corruption.”
On the
very first day of the conference, more than 45 national governments, businesses
and organisations endorsed a statement aiming to prevent and drive out
corruption. The signatories – among them Ghana’s Deputy Minister of
Finance Kwaku Kwarteng – pledged to take action in key areas including
returning the proceeds of corruption to their rightful owners, ending secrecy
over company ownership, clamping down on money laundering and tax evasion,
promoting integrity in state owned enterprises, and improving implementation of
existing conventions such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption
and frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals.