20 March 2024

The OSP has collaborated with management of Labone Senior High School (SHS) in Accra to sensitise students at the school on anti-corruption and make them ambassadors of integrity and transparency. The event took place on 28 February 2024. 

The student participants were 2,080 made up of 1,133 females and 947 males.

The programme at Labone SHS was done in an open area, without the infrastructure for PowerPoint presentation. The presentation format was therefore altered to suit the circumstance. The presentation took the following format:

• Corruption and its impact on society,
• The OSP and its mandate, and
• Whistleblowing.

There was also time reserved for open-floor discussion, where students asked questions and commented on the presentation and the subject of corruption.  

The presentation began with the session on corruption and its effects. The students were asked to define corruption as they understood it.  The definitions received were surprisingly accurate, as most of the responses captured the two key elements of “abuse of power” and “private gain”. The presentation also covered how corruption affects the students as individuals, and the danger of corruption to them.

The officials of the OSP explained that the mandate of the Office is to investigate, prosecute, and prevent corruption, as well as recover the proceeds of corruption and corruption-related activities.

The presentation ended with an explanation of whistleblowing.  The students were encouraged to report corruption, and informed that reporting promotes the fight against corruption. Students were made aware of the office’s points of contact, i.e., the corruption reporting hotline - 0800 000 700, a toll-free line.

The Q&A session covered topics such as money laundering, immunity from prosecution, OSP’s mandate to investigate private sector corruption, and the Cecilia Dapaah case.

The Headmistress of the School extended an invitation to the OSP to visit with more anti-corruption content. The officials of the OSP mooted the idea of periodic interactions with the students via their civic clubs. This was acceptable to the school.

The Programme Management Unit needs to leverage the official launch of the Youth Against Corruption initiative's social media presence on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) to deepen engagement with young people like the students of Labone SHS.