THE POWER OF ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN GHANA

The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu – how sincere and honest is this man? Photo credit: Ghana media

Organized crime and corruption constitute a criminal environment that can actively influence political and economic relations in the state. Ghana is plagued by organized crime and corruption and the existence of the danger of corruption penetrating into the system of organized crime leads to the fact that the population ceases to trust the anti-corruption policy pursued by the Ghanaian authorities.

Corruption is a form of crime that has various manifestations and in most cases remains latent. Corruption is commonly defined as the use by an official of his powers and the rights granted to him for personal gain.

Organized crime is a form of crime carried out by criminal organizations, organized groups, gangs, criminal communities, and other similar illegal formations, that have a hierarchical structure, material and financial base, and links with government structures based on corruption mechanisms.

In my opinion, corruption is one of the main reasons for the constant strengthening of organized crime, making it invincible. Corruption firmly saddled some employees of the bureaucratic authority ... and could quite easily facilitate the adoption of profitable decisions by the state leadership”.

Corruption in Ghana today, is the most dangerous social problem affecting all major institutions of the state and society. From the point of view of criminal legislation, corruption is a system of corruption offenses related to the implementation of organizational and executive functions and expressed in the abuse of authority by officials against the legitimate interests of the society or the state.

It is through bribery that organized crime attracts officials to obtain patronage from them or provoke them into illegal actions in favor of representatives of organized crime. These criminal acts determine the formation of a favorable environment for the development of various forms of crime, including organized crime, and an increase in the number of corruption crimes.

The likelihood that any illegal activity, no matter how disguised it may be, can be detected and suppressed at any time, encourages organized crime to seek ways and means to protect itself in government structures with the help of corrupt officials.

In addition to public administration, organized crime through corruption actively intervenes in commercial relations through commercial bribery. This type of bribery is widespread in the banking environment; with its help, organized criminal groups legalize illegally mined property and transfer significant amounts to foreign banks.

The existence of a criminal community or organization is caused by several reasons, such as criminal unity, structuredness, the severity of the crimes committed, aimed at obtaining financial or material benefits. For organized criminal groups, it is extremely beneficial to have corrupt connections with officials. This is the optimal scheme in terms of achieving a criminal result and security.

Subjects of organized crime are interested in creating relevant positions in government bodies in order to ensure favorable conditions for their illegal activities and to avoid criminal liability; corruption, for its part, thanks to this, it is possible to use the financial, organizational and other resources of organized criminal groups.

Criminal unity presupposes the existence of a complex organizational and technical activities for the existence of a criminal community, ranging from planning criminal activities, building a hierarchical system, maintaining strict discipline, ensuring community safety and ending with establishing links with corrupt officials. 

The structure of the criminal community contains a hierarchical structure by which interaction and protection from law enforcement agencies are created. Corruption has become a reliable means of penetration not only in the law enforcement system but also in the executive, judicial and legislative branches. 

From this, it follows that corruption in the system of Ghanaian organized crime is the necessary security mechanism that provides organized crime with protection from state and public control. A way to legalize criminal proceeds; the means of penetration into political and public life, with the help of which organized criminal formations merge with power and criminalize it; as a way to achieve the goals of the criminal activity.

The fight against organized crime and corruption prevention 

The fight against organized crime and corruption should be carried out comprehensively, but measures to counter these crimes should be developed taking into account the characteristics of each of them. It should not be forgotten that these phenomena cannot be covered only by legislation. Legal action must be supported by the civic stance of members of society, which allows for the support of an effective fight against these crimes.

Unless the judiciary system is not corrupt the fight against corruption and organized can't be achieved or successful. The effect and influence of the corrupt judiciary system in Ghana is so severe that the formulation of a general concept of the activity of law enforcement agencies aimed at suppressing organized crime and corruption doesn't work.

Like the abundance of resources in the soil, Ghana has many educating proverbs with moral lessons. One of such is: No one drinks medicine on the behalf of a sick person. Activities for the implementation of legal economic activities, to form a system of principles for combating corruption and organized crime, based on transparency, can't be done by any country than ourselves.

Everyone, including the Ghanaian authorities, the media, and the citizens, must create a structure of social and spiritual values aimed at condemning manifestations of corruption in the country. Please, think of the comfort and the benefits of the next generation, including the children, and build a better Ghana.