Okudzeto Accuses �NPP� Journalists Of Politicizing Corruption Report

Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, is accusing some journalists and pro-NPP newspapers of making political capital out of the latest corruption index report issued by Transparency International. Referring especially to Monday�s publication in the Chronicle newspaper whose banner headline reads: �Mills� Ghana Is Corrupt-Transparency Says Corruption Is On The Rise In The Country�, Mr Ablakwa said he finds it hard to understand why such a screaming headline will be put on an Accra daily; and opines it was done simply to imply that the Mills� administration is the cause of the rise in corruption. Transparency International (TI), the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, says in its Global Survey that Ghana is getting more corrupt, in spite of the roof-top advertisements of building a �Better Ghana.� The latest TI Corruption Perception Index report indicates that corruption in Ghana is on the increase. According to TI report, while Ghana ranked 62 alongside Romania on the list of 178 countries with a score of 4.1 in 2010, it slipped to 69 in 2011 having scored 3.9. Speaking to the issue in an interview on Radio Gold the deputy Information Minister said there is a difference between the angle of the story from Transparency International and that of some journalists. Comparing indexes over the years, he said the Mills� administration has recorded the highest score with 4.1 in 2010 and for that reason, the impression must not be created that the Mills� administration has not done enough to muzzle corruption. To him, the signing onto the Extractive Industry Transparency Index (EITI) thus accounting for every single drop of oil produced so far, installing new scanners at the airport to check the drug menace and the strengthening the Economic and Organised Crimes Office, goes to show the Mills� administration commitment to fighting corruption. ��4.1 in 2010 and 3.9 this year, which is the highest performance ever so they (journalists) should have acknowledged the fact that President Mills has done far far better than the NPP administration which performed abysmally;�however, government will continue to study this critically�,� he said.