Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng
The fight against corruption retrogressed for three years as a result of the failure to operationalize the Office of the Special Prosecutor during that period, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng has said.
“Upon my assumption of office on 5 August 2021 as the second Special Prosecutor of the Republic, I noticed that the OSP had not been operationalized and it was without its staff and necessary resources”.
“The fight against corruption had, in effect, been thrown in reverse for three (3) years,” Mr. Agyebeng told journalists at a press conference on Thursday, 9 December 2021 in Accra, to mark the international day against corruption.
Mr. Agyebeng also said “without money”, his office “can’t do anything”.
“We will be reduced to writing long letters without any force,” he noted.
According to him, “various divisions ought to be established on the ground; finance, administration, operations, investigations, prosecutions, strategies, communications, assets recovery, and management”.
“All these have to be instituted”, he said.
“In respect of all these, without money, we cannot do this,” Mr. Agyebang said.
“What was put there, I have seen but it doesn’t match up to my expectations but I cannot give up.”
“I do not see it as a closed case”.
“I will keep pushing; we will keep pushing and we will keep engaging, so we get the necessary resources to fund our operations,” he said.
The 2022 budget allocated GHS170,504,000 to the office of the special prosecutor.
Some GHS65,000,000 of that amount will be for paying employees.
Mr. Agyebeng also told journalists that his office has reviewed some 31 cases, adding that the office will, “in due course, commence the prosecution of the cases it considers strong”.
“There is no case commenced by the OSP pending in the courts at the moment”, he noted.