Professor Daniel Kaufmann, Senior Fellow at Results for Development (R4D) and President Emeritus at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), has underscored the need to confront the challenges of state capture in transition economies.

State capture is the efforts of firms to shape the laws, policies, and regulations of the state to their own advantage by providing illicit private gains to public officials.

Prof Kaufmann, who is an international leader in governance, anti-corruption, and natural resource management, made the call in Accra in his presentation at a roundtable on the theme ‘New Frontier in Governance: State Capture and Corruption, Implications for Ghana and Africa’.

The event was organised by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in collaboration with the University of Ghana Business School, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), IMANI and the Africa Centre for Energy Policy.

Prof Kaufmann said state capture occurs where t
here were shaping rules of the game (laws, regulations, policies, and key institutions) by the economics/politically Influential).

He said instead of focusing on a public servant, the focus should be on the ‘captor’, often a powerful private (influencing/colluding with a high-level politician); adding that ‘captors’ were the ‘shapers’ of laws/regulatory regimes.

He reiterated that state capture takes place where there is marked inequality of influence; and that governance could be measured, and it matters, enormously for inclusive socio-economic development, financial stability, security, democracy, justice, and anti-corruption

He called for an innovative approach in fighting corruption; saying ‘We can no longer fight corruption by simply fighting corruption alone’.

He said addressing impunity and strengthening the rule of law was critical in the fight against corruption.

He noted that beyond traditional corruption, state capture was also another key challenge in combating corruption.

He advocated for p
rompt action of prevention to avert descent to state capture.

Source: Ghana News Agency