AN EXAMINATION OF CONVICTED FRAUD CASES IN GHANA BETWEEN 1997 AND 2016: STUDIES FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

It is often argued that men are more susceptible to fraud and corruption compare to their female counterparts. This argument is further supported by recent evidence from Anas Areme yaw investigative report on Judiciary fraud and Corruption of which a female judge refused bribe and threatened to arrest the investigator. This is further reflected in the Rwandan governance model which remains female dominant with its correspondence clean record of fraud in the Africa continent comparatively. There is also argument among politicians regarding perception of fraud within a particular regime. The paper examines data from the Ghana Prisons Service to determine who is the most fraudulent or corrupt is it the male or the female. Hence, the objective sought to examine data on the convicted cases of fraud to ascertain whether males or females are more convicted for committing fraud. Again, the paper assessed from the provided data to determine whether or not a particular government regime was fraud-free. Data was collected using the quantitative method. Questionnaires were specifically distributed to the officials of the Ghana Prison at the Prisons Headquarters Accra. The result showed females were less convicted of fraud as compared to their male counterpart. Furthermore, no political era with the selected time frame was found to have recorded fraud free convicts or significantly low fraud convicts in Ghana. It is therefore recommended that value based education and ethical training should continue to be strengthened in school especially at the formative ages. Female should be encouraged to apply for top positions in leading anticorruptions institutions and delicate positions that requires a lot of transparency and self-disciplined in accountability and honesty. It is further recommended that political parties should avoid propaganda in the fight against fraud and take genuine steps to make fraud and corruption very costly by disciplining offenders to serve as deterrent to others