Ghanaian wins top anti-corruption award
The Head of the Public Sector Governance and Peace Directorate of the Commonwealth, Dr Roger Oppong Koranteng, has won the coveted Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award in the category of Innovation.
The award, established in November 2015, comes in four categories — Academic Research and Education, Youth Creativity and Engagement, Innovation and Lifetime Achievement, and recognises personalities who are contributing to the global campaign against corruption.
Award recipients are honoured every year on the International Anti-Corruption Day which falls on December 7.
Dr Koranteng, the Ghanaian anti-corruption expert who is also an Adviser to the directorate, was honoured for his work on tackling corruption in both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries.
He received the global prestigious award from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Hamad Al-Thani. Also present at the ceremony which was held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, were the Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and UN Secretary-General Representative and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Mr Yury Fedotov.
The award
The award is in the shape of an uplifted golden hand, in addition to a certificate in recognition of his fight against corruption.
Dr Koranteng has been working on governance and corruption issues in his role as Adviser and Head of Public Sector Governance at the Commonwealth for over a decade.
His work
During the period, Dr Koranteng has established vibrant networks of anti-corruption agencies in Commonwealth Africa and the Caribbean that promote inter-agency collaboration and learning through sharing of experiences and best practices.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on his award, he said it was in recognition of innovative ways he had developed to fight corruption across the globe, particularly in Commonwealth countries.
He said as head of the Public Sector Governance and Peace Directorate of the Commonwealth, he had developed a three-pronged approach to fighting corruption in Commonwealth countries.
That, he said, included forming an association of heads of anti-corruption agencies to share their innovative ways in fighting corruption, which was then peer reviewed and the best idea selected by members.
The members then visited a selected country to understudy the effectiveness of the system.
He said the association was vibrant in Commonwealth Africa and in the Caribbean and was delivering tangible results.
He said the results were fantastic considering that the top 10 least corrupt countries in Africa were members of the Commonwealth.