The District Chief Executive of Twifu Hemang Lower Denkyira, Joseph Forster Andoh has stated categorically that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would not tolerate any act of corrupt practices among party officials within or outside government.

In pursuant to this, he said government would empower and resource state institutions which are mandated to fight against corruption to carry out their functions effectively.

The DCE disclosed this when he opened a two-day workshop on corruption organized by National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) at Twifu Praso on Monday.

According to him, corruption causes poverty and deprives people of their right to ownership of assets and consequently retards socio-economic development of communities. It also undermines the trust the citizens of a country had in the government of the day.

Andoh observed that normally the searchlight on corruption was put on politicians because they controlled the national purse but one should not lose sight on the fact that workers who absent themselves habitually without reasonable excuse are corrupt.

"A worker who goes to work late and closes earlier than the normal time is corrupt because they steal precious time while a teacher who teaches wrong things to pupils or students, corrupt the minds of our children", he said.

He went on to say that a driver who charges more than the stipulated fare is also corrupt, and parents who lie to their children is also tantamount to corruption.

Andoh therefore called on the media to hold government accountable by exposing corruption, abuse and arbitrary discretion of government officials so as to ensure corrupt-free society.

The Programmes Manager of GII, Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, said the workshop was organised to create awareness about the negative effects of corruption and to sensitise citizens to demand responsiveness, accountability and transparency from people and institutions in their communities.

She said if African governments failed to reduce corruption, it would be difficult for them to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 because monies meant for development would go to individual pockets.

The Central Regional Director of NCCE, Mr. C. K Nkrumah, called on Ghanaians to make fight against corruption a life-long principle irrespective of one's position in society. The participants came out with various questions regarding corrupt practices in Ghana.