Special Prosecutor nominee, Kissi Agyebeng has justified the significance of the office arguing that any attempt to heed calls to scrap it will cause a slur on Ghana’s fight against deep-rooted corruption.
He said the Special Prosecutor office remains extremely relevant in uncovering the extent to which corruption has engulfed governance and other state agencies in the country, thereby making it a major pivot in safeguarding the public purse.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday for his vetting, Mr. Agyebeng mounted a spirited defence to have the office maintained as part of Ghana’s anti-corruption strategy.
“The day we scrap this [Special Prosecutor] office is the day we say goodbye to our fight against corruption. Its relevance is borne out of its attributes and uniqueness. It is unique as compared to all other law-enforcement agencies in respect of its mandate. No other institution has been carefully thought out and designed to fight corruption specifically as Act 959 had done,” he said.
Following President Akufo-Addo’s establishment of the Office and the appointment of its former head, Martin Amidu, there have been indications from some quarters who believe the Office is simply a waste of the taxpayers’ monies.
To this end, they have made calls for the Office to be collapsed.
Aside from smaller groups who have made such calls, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is on record to have said, it will scrap the office should they ever be elected into office.
They make the point that the office since its set up has failed to pursue any corrupt act, talk of even prosecution of same.
The party had even alleged that the Office was created as a means to witch-hunt the erstwhile John Mahama government and its appointees.
“We shall scrap the SP Office and use the money to support education and other important areas to benefit the state,” Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Peter Boamoah Otukor had said.
But Mr. Kissi Agyebeng admitted that it will not be possible for him to stop corruption in Ghana. He however revealed that he can rather make the act very costly for anybody to engage in.
The nominee said he would put in place the right systems that will help check corruption.
“I am not naive to assume that I am coming to stop corruption. There’s no way I can stop corruption. God himself will not acclaim to that but, I am going to make corruption very costly to engage in.”
