Training of Field Officers for the Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey (GIPSS) has commenced in Accra.

The four-day training exercise will run from Tuesday 7th December to Friday 10th December and with the Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) week that was launched by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on Monday 6th December with the theme “Building a Culture of Integrity for Generations”.

The GIPSS is a collaborative exercise between the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and CHRAJ.

Funding for the survey is being support by the German government through UNODC.

The GIPSS will provide internationally comparable measures of corruption and support the implementation of policies to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.5 (Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms) the data generated will provide insight into analysing and understanding corruption and the results will guide evidence-based policymaking and planning. Some of the data to be collected from the survey include dominant challenges in Ghana today, incidence, frequency and characterisation of bribery and
corruption in both public and private services, awareness and effectiveness of Anti-Corruption
Agencies, crime, feelings of security and access to justice.

In attendance at the opening were Mr. Richard Quayson (Deputy Commissioner, CHRAJ), Mrs. Abena Osei-Akoto (Director of Survey and Censuses Organisation, GSS). Mr. John
Foster Agyaho (GSS, Project Coordinator) and Mr. Charles Ayamdoo (Former Director of Anti-corruption, CHRAJ), members of the Project Implementation Team, Directors from GSS and
CHRAJ, trainers and trainees.

Mr. Richard Quayson, the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ in his remarks discussed theimportance of collecting data on corruption in Ghana and the need for the survey to establish the reality behind the perceptions of corruption and answer some of the swirling questions around corruption in Ghana.

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician in his keynote address to participants highlighted the importance of the GIPSS, its responsiveness to international demands and its complementarity to previous surveys conducted by the Statistical Service that can provide data benchmark data for this survey.

He cited evidence from previous surveys
such as the GLSS 7 – Module on Governance, Peace and Security which indicated about 3 in
10 (28.2%) of respondents had experienced in at least half of their engagement with public
official the payment of unauthorised money for delivery of service ranging from 51.6% in the
Central Region to 11.5% in the Volta Region.

Professor Annim urged trainees to be ethical,
sensitive, and skilful in the discharge of their duties and to let the 3Ps – Passion, psychology, balances put in place to ensure that quality data is generated from the exercise.

The data collection for the survey, which is expected to interview 15,000 respondents
countrywide is scheduled to start on 12 December 2021.

Following the ceremony, trainees took the oath of secrecy in accordance with the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003) that requires that all data provided by respondents be kept confidential.

The conduct of the Ghana Integrity of Public Services Survey is in accordance with the mandates of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to provide comprehensive, reliable, quality,
relevant, accurate and timely statistical information to guide national development as
stipulated in Section 3 of the Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003).

The organisation’s vision is to be a trusted provider of statistical services for good governance and its mission, to lead the efficient production and management of quality official statistics based on international standards, using competent staff for evidence-based decision-making, in support of national development.

GSS also produces monthly data on important economic indicators such as inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), and Producer Price Index as well as population, housing, demographic and economic data at the locality, district, and national levels from routine surveys and censuses.