CHAPTER 2 76. Corruption remains a major governance problem. The Ghana Governance and Corruption Survey of the Centre for Democracy and Development found that 75% of the households surveyed regarded corruption as a serious national problem; 80% felt it had worsened over the previous years; 82% of public officials thought corruption was more prevalent in 2000 than in the previous three years; 59% of households saw corruption as a major problem in the private sector; and 86% saw it as a major problem in the public sector. Of the causes of corruption, 80% of the public officers surveyed attributed the leading cause to low salaries. Bad internal management practices were also cited as a cause of corruption. 77. The government has taken various measures to combat corruption, including: ? ? ? ? ? The introduction and stern application of criminal law; Civic education; Strident sermonising and purification, particularly by religious groups; Promotion of a National Integrity System, initiated by the CHRAJ, resulting in the Ghana Integrity Initiative as a local chapter of Transparency International, and the creation of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition with an action plan to combat corruption, which has been integrated into the GPRS; and The Declaration of Zero Tolerance for Corruption in January 2001 by the President. 78. In addition, the government has taken various legal and institutional measures, notably the CHRAJ, created by Parliament in 1993. In addition to other functions, it is mandated to investigate all instances of alleged or suspected corruption and the misappropriation of public monies by public officials. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was established in 1993 to monitor, investigate and, with the consent of the AttorneyGeneral, prosecute criminal offences involving financial or economic loss to the state. The Office of Accountability was created in 2003 as an internal corrective body under the Presidency, to which all presidential appointees are subject. 79. Although the CHRAJ and the SFO have recorded successes in the fight against corruption, it is noteworthy that both institutions are constrained by inadequate capacity human and material resources, organisational, logistics and infrastructure. Serious concerns have been raised: (a) about the powers of the SFO's Executive Director to restrict the movements and freeze the assets and bank accounts of those accused of fraud; and (b) about the inquisition-like power of the SFO to buy incriminating evidence to use against them. 36