Ing. Stephen Duodo (middle) launching the report while Dr. Yeboah and Ms. Ofori-Kwafo look on
Religious and traditional rulers in some communities in three regions of Ghana are purportedly in the trade of taking bribes from individuals in land-related cases.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency International (TI), revealed this in its latest report on corruption in the land sector.
The study, titled: ‘Women, Land And Corruption In Ghana,’ is one of the three studies forming part of TI’s ‘Land and Corruption in Africa (LCA)’ project.
The overall goal of the LCA project is to contribute to improved livelihood of men and women of all generations adversely affected by corrupt practices in land administration and land deals, with the aim to enhance security of tenure, as well as equitable and fair access to land and water, ultimately to sustainable and inclusive development and growth.
The study was conducted in three out of the 10 regions of Ghana namely, Northern, Western and Ashanti.
The specific communities were Savelugu, Tamale, Wamale, Kumasi, Adomfe, Agona Nkwanta and Ahanta Mpatasie.
According to the report, at the community level, traditional leaders and pastors were notorious for taking bribes in the land sector while in urban areas, public institutions and officials were cited for collecting bribes from individuals seeking land-related services.
“Men and women paid bribes for different reasons,” the report said, adding, “Whereas women mainly paid bribes to prevent possible eviction, men did so largely to improve their sense of tenure security or speed up land transaction.”
“The enormous prevalence of bribery in the land sector creates a high informal cost for those trying to register or transfer land,” the report indicated.
“One out of three respondents had been asked to pay bribe during the past 12 months and similar proportion of respondents had indeed paid bribe,” according to the survey which sampled about 266 respondents using both the quantitative and qualitative methods.
In the Ahanta Mpatasie community of the Western Region for instance, the report indicated that the continuous sale of land by community leaders without ascertaining the present and future needs of the local community had deprived members of their access to land.
Ironically, the report explained that the same leaders, who are noted for bribery in the sector, are the ones in-charge of settling land-related disputes, painting ‘the thief is the judge’ scenario.
Dr. Eric Yeboah, a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who carried out the study on behalf of GII, cautioned the traditional and religious leaders and state institutions cited for bribery in the land sector to cease the practice, saying, “These leaders need repentance from the act.”
Executive Director of GII, Linda Ofori-Kwafo, in a welcome remark at the launch of the study on Thursday in Accra, said the WLCA project, which started in November 2014, was being implemented by three TI chapters namely, Ghana, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
According to her, many women, particularly those living in poor and marginalized areas, are not aware of the legal or administrative processes around land registration, or do not have the means to influence them to their advantage.
She bemoaned, “Frequently, women are deliberately coerced into giving up their rights, and subsequently are often forced to pay bribes or face harassment throughout land administration processes.”
BY Melvin Tarlue