Some residents of the Adenta in the Greater Accra Region have bemoaned the spate of harassment meted out to them by some officials of the Adenta Municipal Assembly. They have accused the officials of extortion and other corrupt activities that is creating tension in the various communities in the Municipality.
Speaking to the New Crusading Guide Newspaper in an interview, a resident who mentioned his name as Kwaku Nimo a Mason stated that the some of these officials, about five in number in a Nissan Pick Up with Registration GV239-14 came to the site they were working and demanded a building permit from their boss. He said whiles engaging their boss and demanded money or would seize the tools and Equipments they were using. Based on that an amount of Ghc 500 money was released to them. Thereafter they went to the next apartment and collected another Ghc 500 cedis from the building owner. Since they collected the money, they have been coming to this place every afternoon to check and possibly collect money. This is bad and has to stop he stated.
He has thus called on the Adenta Municipal Chief Executive and the Minister of Local Government to come to their aid and stop these guys from the taskforce unit from the constant harassment.
That is what they do here always. They go round demanding money from people when they see then construction walls or putting up buildings. They claim they are not well paid so they extort
Transparency International defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. According to TI, Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.
Forms of corruption pertaining to money like bribery, extortion, embezzlement, and graft are found in local government systems. Other forms of political corruption are nepotism and patronage systems. One historical example was the Black Horse Cavalry a group of New York state legislators accused of blackmailing corporations.
Corruption erodes the trust we have in the public sector to act in our best interests. It also wastes our taxes or rates that have been earmarked for important community.
Corruption also undermines the fairness of institutions and processes and distorts policies and priorities. As a result, corruption damages the legitimacy of regimes leading to a loss of public support and trust for state and government institutions
