Leadership and governance expert, Professor Stephen Adei, has championed the establishment of special courts to address corruption cases in Ghana.
According to him, the sole mandate of these courts will be to effectively and efficiently handle corruption cases and ensure accountability.
Prof. Adei acknowledged the fact that corruption cases often take very long years to be prosecuted, resulting in people in corruption related scandals getting away with their crimes.
He emphasized the importance of separating corruption trials from the regular judicial system, arguing that such a court should operate like land courts or commercial courts to expedite cases.
“We must have special courts, not kangaroo courts, where cases drag on for seven or eight years,” he stated on the KeyPoints on March 8.
Prof. Adei indicated that the most effective anti-corruption efforts require a high probability of offenders being caught and punished. He charged government to put in place structures and strict punishments to ensure accountability, regardless of political affiliations.
His call for an anti-corruption court adds to growing demands for judicial reforms to combat corruption in Ghana effectively.
President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe also called for a change in approach in the corruption fight.
He indicated that while strategies like the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and the Financial and Asset Management System for Central Administration Departments (FAMSCAD) have been introduced to curb corruption, their effectiveness remains questionable.
“We have implemented all these control-based systems, yet corruption persists,” he noted.
He pointed out that the core issue lies in the principal-agent problem, where bureaucrats—who often have more information than government officials—exploit gaps in oversight. Procurement fraud, for instance, continues despite the Public Procurement Authority’s (PPA) supposedly strict regulatory measures.
Franklin Cudjoe suggested that Ghana must rethink its governance model by adopting a co-creation and transparency-driven approach.
Rather than relying solely on command-and-control financial management, he proposed that ministers and chief directors voluntarily commit to a radical transparency framework.
This would include open data policies, allowing citizens and oversight bodies real-time access to procurement details, performance benchmarks, and financial management records.
