Murtala Kamara Mohammed, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Transparency International (TI), a civil society body which seeks to fight corruption and raise awareness around the world has ranked the West African state of Ghana among the least corrupt nations in the continent. The "Corruption Perceptions Index 2009" which was published this week ranked Ghana in the 69th position out of 180 countries world wide.

The group says their annual report offers a snapshot of how corrupt a country’s government is perceived by international institutions including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the Asian and African Development Banks.
“Overall we do not see a lot of changes to the last year’s results,” Patrick Berg program coordinator for TI said whiles adding that “We see that there are quite a number of countries that still have a long way to go to increase public trust in their institutions.”
Somalia was ranked as the most corrupt nation on earth followed by Afghanistan and Myanmar. Sudan took just after Somalia with 176, Chad 175, Guinea 168, Burundi 168, Guinea Bissau 162, Democratic Republic of Congo 162, Sierra Leone 146, and Nigeria 130 with New Zealand topping the list.
According To Berg corruption is the responsibility of everyone civil institutions, corporations and governments, but that governments have a clear incentive to root out corruption. “The interest of a government to reduce corruption is to provide better services the population overall, to provide better security, increase trust and that of course will also have a positive impact on business development, which again is profitable to the state,” Berg said.
He continued: “Where you find poverty, corruption usually hits people the hardest,” Berg said. “In some of the more affluent countries, corruption may be a major problem, but it does not keep people from getting health care or clean water to their houses.”
TI says in Ghana “high-profile anti-corruption cases and scandals continue to be regularly reported… and risk undermining political stability as well as the governments’ capacity to provide effective basic services in sectors such as education, health and water.”