The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr Oduro Osae, has advocated that as part of the fight against corruption the Attorney General's department should be decoupled from the Ministry of Justice.

He insisted that he had been making this over the years part of his advocacy towards the fight against graft.

The Afrobarometer report which was released by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) placed the Office of the Presidency second on the list of institutions or offices perceived to be corrupt while the Police was first with Members of Parliament (MP) placed third while the Judiciary fell at the fourth pace.

Dr Osae said it was only strict application of anti-corruption laws in the country that would reduce the practice to the lowest level which makes case for the Attorney General to be decoupled from the Ministry of Justice in order to give the Attorney General the power to deal with corrupt appointees.

"I will insist we separate the Attorney General' department from the Ministry of Justice by doubling our efforts in fighting corruption since a lot of people still do not understand intricacies of corruption and its impact, including a lot of education, sensitisation and creation of awareness as wake up call.

"Strict application of anti-corruption laws as part of fight against the menace which marks the first major step in winning the fight against the practice and we should double efforts in fighting corruption and a lot of people still do not understand the intricacies of corruption and its impact.

"I am optimistic the fight against corruption can be won if citizens appreciate corruption is a canker they will not indulge in, boils down to applying the law strictly applied to serve as deterrent to others," Dr Osae stressed.