“There was barely no staff [at the Office of the Special Prosecutor],” the current occupant of the office has said.
According to him, there was only one person at the OSP who was on the government payroll when he took over.
“When I went in, there was only one person on the payroll. I won’t disclose who. So, you have a chief accountant who is on secondment, you have an investigator who is on secondment from the police, you have a lawyer who is on secondment from the Attorney General’s office and that’s it,” Kissi Agyebeng explained on Starr Chat.
He said, from August 5 when he assumed office till September 29, “we have done a lot and achieved a lot.”
He further indicated that, there is no board in place for the office yet, therefore, he cannot be making recruitment now else he would be acting illegally.
“I am waiting for the board to be sworn in. immediately the board is sworn in, two things are going to happen, we have already built something…by the end of January, I’m going to have at least 250 staff; I have applications from all over, applications are still coming in (with) respect of the various positions and we’re going to do a massive recruitment drive within that period….
“And then the creation of more divisions. So, under the Act we have finance and administrative division, we have the investigative division, we have the prosecuting division and the asset recovery and management division…there is one very dear to my heart that we are going to establish, that is the strategy research and communicative division – this will be the heartbeat of the office,” Kissi Agyebeng told Nana Aba Anamoah.
The office of the Special Prosecutor is a creation of Parliament that serves as an independent investigation and prosecution body to make inquiries into corruption, bribery, or other criminal cases at the national level either in the public or private sector.
Kissi Agyebeng