By Alex Ababio
The ecstacy and excitement that heralded the announcement by His Excellency , President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo on 10 January 2018 that Mr Martin Lamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu as the Special Prosecutor for new created Office of Special Prosecutor, OSP, has indeed not lasted longer.
The shunning and the glory with which the Office of Special Prosecutor , was promulgated by Acts of Parliament under the
, Act, 2017 (Act 959) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor ” as a new specialised anti-corruption agency with prosecutorial powers to fight corruption in Ghana has quickly dissipated .
And indeed , the image of OSP, which was once held in high esteem is tainted with the allegation made against President Akuffo Addo that he has not been able to ensure independence and freedom of action of the office.
“The one condition upon which I accepted to be nominated as the Special Prosecutor when you invited me to your Office on 10th January 2018 was your firm promise to me that you will respect and ensure same by your Government for my independence and freedom of action as the Special Prosecutor,” Mr Martin Amidu explained.
In his reference as to why he resigned , and the decision to make it public, the former Attorney General said he has had a “traumatic experience” between 20th October 2020 and 2nd November 2020 after releasing his corruption risk assessment on Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions.
The creation of Office of Special Prosecutor was one of the campaign promises by the New Patriotic Party, NPP and the then Presidential Candidate , and now President of Ghana, Nana Akuffo Addo during the 2016 electioneering campaign , to drum home the party’s commitment to fight Corruption when voted into power.
In fact , President Akuffo Addo at the time pledged to protect the nation’s purse.
The Office of Special Prosecutor’s Act which was beautifully crafted contains the standard anti-corruption provisions, enhanced protections and indemnity for
the Office of the Special Prosecutor and for the first time, the ceding of those portions of the
Attorney General’s prosecutorial powers relating to corruption and corruption related offences to the Special Prosecutor and above all, guaranteeing the independence of the Office in the
execution of its work and functions.
*Objects and Functions*
The Act establishes the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a body corporate with perpetual
succession with the attendant attributes of legal personality and spells out three main objectives
of the Office, namely:
(i) investigate and prosecute alleged corruption or suspected corruption and
corruption related offences,
(ii) recover the proceeds of corruption and corruption related offences, and
(iii) take steps to prevent corruption.
Resignation as Special Prosecutor
Despite these beautiful tenets of Office of Special Prosecutor , Mr Martin Amidu who is hailed and touted as Citizen Vigilante by many Ghanaians and single handedly fought and won a case against Woyome to retrieve GHC51 Million to the State could not achieve any significant impact as far as fighting Corruption
From the onset.
I knew this would happen in that Mr Martin Amidu kept on complaining about how his office was under resourced .
CHALLENGES OF THE OFFICE
Mr Martin Amidu has for some time now complained about how Office of Special Prosecutor has been under resourced and in his own words this is how he described the situation in the reports he authored :
“The Office has faced several problems since my assumption of office as the I got a private secretary and a records officer
seconded to the Office in the second week of April 2018 from the Office of the Head of Civil
Service, and a Chief Accountant from the Controller, and Accountant-General’s Department on
I was notionally provided with a budget line and a budget in June 2018 to be
expended through the Ministry of Justice without the requisite accompanying officials to
constitute the signatories to any bank accounts for the Office until
Emolument
Mr Martin Amidu in his resignation statement revealed that although his appointment was announced in 2018, he only received his appointment letter on 5th February 2020.
“My appointment letter was received on 5th February 2020 (almost two (2)-years after my appointment). The copy addressees made no efforts to honour any of the conditions of appointment in terms of emoluments and benefits of the appointment ever since my warrant of appointment was issued on 23rd February 2018 to the date of my letter ”
This has not been possible for several reasons,” his statement said.
Government Response
In a sharp rebuttal to Mr Martin Amidu’s complaint about how his office was not resourced , Government had this to :
“In 2019, your Office submitted a Budget Proposal of GHC360 million out of which Gh¢180,160,225 was approved and appropriated
This amount was higher than the budget of some Ministries in the current Government, and was made up of GHC33. 47million for Compensation of Employees, GHC88. 01million for Goods and Services and GHC58. 68million for Capital Expenditure.
Only a little of over GHC5.22million had been utilised by you as head of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
These foregone back and fourth allegation and counter allegation is surely contributing to dissipation of fundamental image of OSP.
I believe which ever way one may look at the current status and the image of OSP one can conclude that the once glorified Office is now badly battered and has now joined the rest of EConomic and Organised Crime Office , EOCO, and,
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice ,CHRAJ , as state institutions which have lost their vibrancy and respect in the fight against Corruption in the country.