The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin is unhappy with the limited achievement of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
During recent deliberations on the controversial anti-gay bill in parliament, the speaker also decried what looks to him like an ineffectiveness of the OSP in the fight against corruption in the country.
In view of this observation of his, the creation of the institution seems to have been an act in futility.
According to him, he had argued once that the establishment of the outfit was an act in futility in that it looked obvious that it was not going to yield better results.
“As for the law you passed on the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, I did tell you that it was an act in futility, you were not going to achieve anything but you went ahead and passed it,” he said.
The OSP operates directly under the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry has for sometime been tagged as a politically influenced institution. Therefore, Mr. Bagbin argues that the two ought to be separated in order that the OSP could function in the best way possible.
“I am very clear in my mind that that authority is embedded in the powers of the Attorney-General constitutionally… You separate the two – the Minister of Justice is a political appointee – the Attorney-General is a technical person,” said the speaker.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor was created in 2018 under the then young Akufo-Addo led government. The outfit was charged to champion the fight against one of the country’s most frustrating cankers, corruption.
But years on, with many instances of people being called to the outfit to answer questions on corruption related issues, the OSP has yet to indict any such persons under its current leader, Kissi Agyebeng.
The institution however in its recent report, disclosed a number of cases pending in court, with others still under investigations.
The OSP also disclosed some internal issues hampering the progress of their work. Shocking to the public was the case of non-payment of their areas over a long duration.
This caught the public’s attention and generated calls on government to settle the payment in order to avoid the institution being susceptible to inducement.
Mr. Agyebeng has been questioning the seriousness of the country to rid itself of the canker. He has been calling for a united front and intentionality in the fight against the menace.
Discussion about this post