The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has defended its report, which ranked the Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt among 32 institutions sampled.
According to the research institution, the methodology employed to sample the respondents was robust and devoid of errors.
The Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare reacting to the survey indicated that it feeds the perception that police officers are corrupt and goes on to damage the reputation of the Police Service.
“Our methodology and all our issues were subjected to very high scrutiny. There was a steering committee on this made up of institutions including the police to approve our methodology”, said Anthony Amuzu Pharin, the Director of Social and Demographic Statistics at the Ghana Statistical Service.
The Ghana Police Service has reacted to recent surveys labelling its officials as the most corrupt in Ghana.
Separate survey reports released by the Ghana Statistical Service and its partners, as well as an Afrobarometer report, had officials of the service topping the corruption list.
According to the Afrobarometer study undertaken by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), 65 percent of Ghanaians believe most police are corrupt, while 31 percent believe only some police are corrupt.
Responding to this in a five-page letter signed by the Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare, the police service acknowledged that there may be some bad nuts in the service, just like any human institution.
It noted that it continues to implement measures to discourage corruption among its men.
The service however thinks it would have been helpful if the researchers had engaged its leaders to find out what measures they had instituted, so they can be incorporated into the findings.
The police service said it considers the research and its findings heavily challenged and corrupted from both the academic and practical points of view.
The Police Service after reviewing the Afrobarometer report has serious concerns with the research and its findings.
It presented some 14 concerns to the researchers and requested a response to each of them.
According to the Police, this will help them better understand the research outcomes and further shape measures being implemented by the Service to improve its delivery.
But Anthony Amuzu Pharin further said the named institutions should engage relevant agencies to draw up recommendations.
“But this is it, we randomly selected 15,000 households and within the households, we randomly select on adult. The information we collected suggested this. We are not dealing with perceptions. We are dealing with actual experience. Initially, when we published the story, some people were asking us what the way forward is. The way forward is to sit with CHRAJ and come up with recommendations for the specific institutions based on the report we have come out with”, he stressed.
credit:citinewsroom.