Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Nice, Clean, No-Bribes Ghana?

Have you tried getting a passport in Ghana? Or registering a company at the Companies Registry? Or simply entering the country through the Airport? Or driving through a police checkpoint after 10 pm? Everyday things we do and have to pay more than the official amount for (mind you there is no official fee at all for driving through a police checkpoint on the way home). So do not tell me here that Ghana is the least bribe-taker in West Africa. Cold comfort that.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous11 May, 2011

    If Ghana takes the least, then the sub-region must be making a kill!

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  2. I can actually believe that - six weeks driving in Accra with an expired DL, never paid a single bribe... and I do go through several of these check points to get home.
    Sometimes a smile and good reasoning... goes a long way in Accra:-)

    ps. I realize driving without a license it's totally not kosher!

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  3. Anonymous11 May, 2011

    Hmmm...one wonders whether to feel pride at being adjudged "least-bribe taker".

    Should we instead feel forlorn at the fact that mediocrity has sunk in so much, so that we're even terrible at being corrupt?

    Or maybe, we should not be on this list at all to being with. "Zero tolerance" for corruption and all that jazz.

    Naaaahh, pride feels much better than the others. Proudly Ghanaian!

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  4. Try being a lady. A wink here, a smile there will do the trick through all them checkpoints with your money intact.
    But oh, do get a spare phone with a spare sim card so you can give that number to them when they ask for your phone number.
    Lost track of the number of sim cards I've thrown away thus far.

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  5. Kwame Mensa-Bonsu12 May, 2011

    Some people in the other countries must be suffering! Probably spend a large portion of their money bribing. Would love Gh to have no bribery at all though.@ Efua Dentaa...very wise!

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  6. I guess it is possible. The key issue here is relativity. In explaining the Theory of Relativity a professor compared watching a beautiful broad passing and holding a hot pan for a second. So I say if the average bribe to get through a police check point is 5 Ghana Cedis, it might be three times, four times in another...

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  7. @ Anon 1:

    Yes, it must be a war zone out there.

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  8. @ yeh:

    Driving is easy enough if you're going to obey the rules. But try getting a government office to do what they are paid to do anyway. You would have to pay them again to do it for you (or come back for an answer next year).

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  9. @ Anon 2:

    You ask seemingly light but really very deep questions. Maybe she should be a bit proud about being the least since corruption cannot be totally eradicated. But do we want to be compared with the most successful or the least successful countries?

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