Roughly GHC5 billion bribes were paid to public officials in 2021, a survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has shown.
According to the survey titled: ‘Corruption in Ghana – people’s experiences and views’, the average bribe paid is GHC348 or roughly US$44 based on the 2021 spot exchange rate.
“Given that roughly 17.4 million bribes were paid in Ghana in 2021, the average bribe size of GHC348 results in a total of approximately GHC5 billion paid in cash bribes to public officials in 2021.
“More than a quarter of adults in Ghana paid bribes within 12 joint periods with cash bribes totaling approximately GHc5 billion in 2021,” the survey said.
The figure, corresponds to almost one third (32.9%) of the 2021 budget of the Ministry of Education.
Size of bribes
The size of the average bribe paid in Ghana further differs greatly between urban and rural areas. At GHC404, the average bribe in urban areas is approximately 1.5 times larger than the GHC265 average in rural areas.
The share of small bribes (under GHC 50) is larger in rural (47.3%) than in urban areas (31.7%), whereas the share of larger bribes (above GHC100), is higher in urban (47.8%) than in rural areas (35.2%). An interesting finding from the survey data is that not all bribe-payers are willing to pay the actual amount requested by the public official.
Roughly four out of 10 bribe-payers indicate negotiating the value of a bribe paid, with men being 1.3 times more likely to negotiate the value of the cash bribe than women.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), in partnership with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), conducted the first comprehensive, nationally representative population survey on corruption in Ghana.
The fieldwork involved a survey of 15,000 respondents across the country, in all regions and in both urban and rural areas.
The main objective was to collect evidence-based information on forms of corruption affecting the population of Ghana in order to determine the prevalence of corruption and its prevailing typologies.
