Corruption Denies Future Generations Resources-Asenso-Okyere

A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Otchere says the country must step up efforts to fight corruption to safeguard resources for future generations. He was speaking at a lecture dubbed "The Sustainable Use of Resources" organised by the Institute for Democratic Governance and Joy FM on the theme “Living at the Expense of Future Generations, Innovating for Sustainable Development”. Professor Asenso-Otchere who is currently the Director of the International Service for National Agricultural Research said although the land mass of the world is fixed and its resources finite, population keeps increasing. He said at the current rate of resource exploitation there would very little for future generations to enjoy. He therefore stressed the need for steps to be taken to halt the rate of depletion. The Professor mentioned corruption as one other means by which the world’s resources are being depleted and said the fight to eradicate it ought not be limited to just politicians. "The office manager demands a bribe before an individual's file is put for work to be done on it. "The revenue officer reduces the tax to be paid after being paid a bribe", he stated. Such acts he stressed were inimical to the development of the country. "Corruption leads to inflation of cost of projects or substandard output because part of the cost is used to pay the bribe", he explained. The former VC added that under such circumstances society could not get the full value of what it paid for. Professor Asenso-Otchere observed that Ghana and other developing countries must begin to take steps to end the wasteful use of land. He said the current situation where low occupancy houses were built on land which is getting ever scarce and the adoption of poor yield agriculture production methods was endangering future generations. Prof. Asenso-Otchere noted that even though the country had done considerably well in reducing poverty through economic growth more had to be done to correct the widening gap between rich and poor.