Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Adaboo Azeem, has opined that the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was a result of the failure of other specialized state agencies.
Many have heightened the calls for collaboration between the OSP and other specialized state agencies like the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) among others after Ghana’s Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng bemoaned over the lack of funds and support from the government.
However, Mr. Azeem believes that such claims are “unrealistic and unnecessary” considering previous experiences of lack of cooperation from government institutions.
In an interview on e.tv Ghana’s “Fact Sheet” with Samuel Eshun, the anti-corruption campaigner highlighted that the office was only set up for additional roles and to deliver better results in the fight against corruption.
“Why did we have to set up an office for the Special Prosecutor if those offices where doing the necessary things to the satisfaction of Ghanaians and the government if the day. We set up the office of the prosecutor because we wanted it to do addition work and even Martin Amidu complained about government institutions not giving him needed cooperation and it’s not only about him. Prior to that under Mills’ regime, Dr. Tony Adu complained about not even getting information he was looking for from government institutions,” he said.
“So it’s not just about, there is the office of the Special Prosecutor but the thing that we set up to investigate and deal with corruption are not getting the necessary collaborations even from the government institutions. When this happens you expect the appointed authorities if these institutions to take them on and do something about them but unfortunately the appointment authorities are not doing much about that as well.”
Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor for Ghana, has nonetheless stated that his office requires additional funds to handle the complex nature of corruption and crimes related to corruption in the nation.
He claims that the enhanced methods by which offenders now carry out their corrupt operations have made it necessary.
According to him, technology has made corruption more difficult, necessitating the use of more resources to combat more cunning perpetrators.
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