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VI. Recommendations
As noted at the outset, Ghana is making significant strides
in economic growth and development and is viewed
as a beacon of hope in a region plagued by civil strife,
ethnic violence, poverty, and entrenched inequalities. The
country has remained resilient to the types of challenges
that some of its neighbours have had to contend with
over the past decades. At the same time however, cracks
in its own political system, weak rule of law, and a series
of political economy and governance-related challenges
make its institutions and citizens highly vulnerable to
the influence of organized criminal activity. Pegging of
political opponents to organized criminal activities such
as narcotics trafficking is becoming commonplace in
public debate, as are the frequent revelations of official
involvement in narcotics trafficking, undermining the
legitimacy of both formal and traditional governance
institutions. Weak political party, campaign financing
and asset declaration regulatory frameworks do little to
enhance perceptions that illicit funding has become a
strategic asset of political parties in particular.
Connections between elected officials, the military, or
security services and organized crime are certainly not
as obvious as in other countries in the sub-region, w<strong>here</strong>
organized crime has been used to influence domestic
political contestation or elite interests, or w<strong>here</strong> organized
criminal groups manipulate weak systems for their own
strategic gain. Yet the number of high-level officials and
mid- and low-level cadres that have been found to be
involved in organized crime-related incidents over the
past decade, particularly drug trafficking and money
laundering, does indicate deeper structural challenges.
And while the state is not apparently involved in areas
of organized (or ‘disorganized’) crime such as cyber and
environmental crime or human trafficking, its capacity to
respond to these complex challenges is weak at best.
An embedded culture of corruption, patronage, and
clientelism underpins this scenario, which is already
impacting the lives of ordinary citizens and placing
pressure on the legitimacy of Ghana’s nascent democratic
institutions.
Recommendations
Efforts to counter organized crime in Ghana today are
generally focused on strengthening law enforcement
and are rarely linked to other core areas of support. Multipronged
strategic interventions that go beyond mere
law enforcement measures to also ensuring transparent
political processes, improving governance, strengthening
the capacity of oversight institutions, enhancing
delivery of services in strategic areas, and providing
incentives for unemployed youth are key to breaking the
growing relationship between organized crime, politics,
governance and society. More specifically and in the shortterm,
particular attention should be placed on:
• Ensure more effective interdiction efforts, including
through effective and sustainable vetting of specialized
agencies and focusing interdiction efforts on highlevel
targets with the greatest capacity to corrupt and
disrupt.
• Increasing transparency and integrity by
strengthening existing political party funding,
campaign financing, and asset declaration frameworks.
Particular attention must be given to amending the
Political Parties Act to require candidates to declare
their assets and include enforceable penalties for
those who fail to do so, as well as for parties that fail
to submit and publish their financial records. The asset
declaration law must require state officials to annually
declare their assets to the Auditor General’s office, and
the office should be given the authority to publish
assets declared. Donors could be particularly helpful in
increasing transparency by not only offering assistance
to parties that lack the resources to undertake
comprehensive auditing of their records,255 but also
investing in mechanisms that could help cross-check
and verify the validity of assets declared by state officials
and reports submitted by parties. Donors could also
condition provision of further development assistance
on passage of a right to information law.
255. The Electoral Commission has refused to strictly enforce campaign finance laws because it
argues doing so would disadvantage smaller and less resources parties.
NYU
CIC
Responding to the Impact of Organized Crime on Developing Countries