The Progressive People’s Party has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and New Patriotic Party administration to convert the Office of the Special Prosecutor to the Office of the Attorney General.
In a statement released on Monday, December 18 2023, the party indicated that the powers of the Office of the Special Prosecutor are ‘unfortunately’ embedded in the Minister of Justice and Attorney General functions as per the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act 959 (Act 2017), that created the Office.
According to the statement, the Office of the Special Prosecutor has been seeded some powers of the Office of the Attorney General which in itself is very problematic.
“The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has since 2012 championed the proposal for decoupling the Attorney General from the Minister of Justice as the only way to successfully win the fight against corruption. The Party has asked for an amendment of Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution.
“We are clearly in agreement with those echoing the PPP’s long-held position of a total separation of the Minister of Justice from the Attorney General. Attorney General for the people and the Minister of Justice as an advisor to the President. Hence, we ask for the separation of the two and convert the OSP to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO)”.
Progressive Peoples’ Party
The Progressive People’s Party further noted that until the government decouple the Office of the Attorney General from the Minister of Justice and make the Office of the Attorney General the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the current Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) architecture cannot effectively work to deal with issues of corruption in the country.
PPP Accuses Government Of Under-Funding OSP
Moreover, the Progressive Peoples’ Party accused President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party administration of its failure to resource the Office of the Special Prosecutor to perform its mandate as required by law.
The statement recounted that both the former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu and the current Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyabeng have decried the lack of funding to discharge the mandate of its functions as required by the Act that established the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
The statement further asserted that any institution set up to fight corruption for which political appointees are often subject to matters of investigation is not a ‘healthy system’.
“As a Party, we sympathise with the Special Prosecutor, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng. Competent as he is, he finds himself between a rock and a hard place. The Constitution says, that to be President one must be 40 years and above, yet a 43-year-old Oldman is called a “small boy” and the Information Minister and his communication team, sit silently on the fence as the Office is bastardized and taken to the cleaners. We infer from the lack of defence to mean a state-sponsored bastardisation of the SPO”
Progressive Peoples’ Party
In addition, the Progressive Peoples’ Party posited that the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor was deliberately done by the New Patriotic Party administration to deceive Ghanaians into believing it is fighting against corruption in the country, however, the reality is the opposite.
The Progressive People’s Party concluded by recommending that the new Attorney General Office when created must have a budget that is built on the percentage of the national budget.
‘Access to its funding must be enshrined in the constitution”.
Progressive People’s Party
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