The second national integrity conference has ended in Accra with a call on the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to consider an amendment to the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) to enhance national efforts at fighting corruption.

Participants said the widening of corruption laws in the country in conformity with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the African Union (AU) Convention would go a long way in helping the campaign against corruption.

The two conventions, they said, were ratified by Parliament on October 31, 2003.

The call was contained in a 41-point communique issued at the end of the three-day conference which was opened by the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama.

Presentations were made by participants from Malaysia, Sierra Leone and Botswana at the conference, which was organised by Ghana's Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), with the support of DANIDA, for countries to share best practices in anti-corruption efforts and robust integrity systems in the regions.

The communique expressed concern that subsidiary legislation for some anti-corruption laws had not been made and proposed an independent public prosecutor to be appointed to prosecute corruption cases in Ghana.

Validating a new National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP), the participants underscored the need for a national integrity programme under the NACAP.

They also said high ethical standards were needed in public life to reduce the opportunity for corruption and enhance the principles of probity, transparency and accountability.

They recommended to Parliament to adopt the NACAP and pass all outstanding anti-corruption bills and legislative instruments, particularly the Freedom of Information Bill, and appealed to the government to resource constitutional agencies such as CHRAJ to enable them to effectively fulfil their mandate.