The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has accused some heads of government institutions of hampering efforts by his office to clamp down on corruption in the country.
According to
him, some heads were simply refusing to comply with the laid down regulations
of good governance and the protection of the national purse.
“The biggest challenge facing the Office of the
Special Prosecutor (OSP) as an anti-corruption investigatory and prosecutorial
body in spite of all the powers conferred upon it is not the President who
promised the people of Ghana to establish the Office but the heads of
institutions who simply refuse to comply with laws designed to ensure good
governance and to protect the national purse by fighting corruption,” he
stated.
Mr Amidu made these allegations in a write-up published in Accra yesterday.
Among other
things, he said, the “heads of institutions wantonly disregard statutory requests
made by the Office for information and production of documents to assist in the
investigation of corruption and corruption-related offences, in spite of the
fact that the President has on a number of occasions admonished them on such
misconduct.”
Failure to address these impediments, he
explained, would make the fight against corruption less successful and render the
OSP a defeated establishment.
He said the Office would sue institutions which
fail to honour requests for documents and information through the Attorney
General to compel them to release documents to help in investigations.
“The OSP Act empowers the Office to enforce the
production of information and documents in the courts against any public
institution that fails or refuses to honour the lawful request of the Office.
This Office can also go to the High Court to compel heads of institutions to
obey the laws that support the fight against corruption. The consequence will
be that in accordance with the civil procedure rules this Office will have to
sue the Attorney General as the representative of the State.”
He stated that some agencies, whose names he did
not mention in the write-up, were bent on “interfering and undermining the
independence of the OSP by deliberately running concurrent investigations
falling within the jurisdiction of this Office with on-going investigations in
this Office for the sole purpose of aborting investigations into corruption and
corruption-related offences.”
Although the OSP was working to fight
corruption, he said some malfeasance had affected the ability of this Office to
deliver on its mandate, particularly when it must depend on some of these very
institutions for seconded staff until it employs its own.
“What is worrying to this Office as an
anti-corruption investigation and prosecutorial agency is the refusal of heads
of institutions to take steps to enforce basic rules of discipline governing
their institutions even when they know that their officers are under
investigation, have been cautioned, bailed, and eventually even charged with
corruption and corruption-related offences.”
Heads of agencies, Mr Amidu, said, have refused
to interdict public officers who were under investigation as required under the
law.
“Unfortunately,
the experience of the Office of the Special Prosecutor is that when it comes to
fighting corruptions and corruption-related offences, heads of institutions
think that the rules on interdiction and/or indefinite leave of public officers
do not apply to corruption and corruption-related offences.”
Mr Amidu urged the public and civil society
organisations to support work of the Office and put pressure on the political
elite to obey the laws that enable the Office to achieve its mandate.
In an interview with Ghanaian Times, Vitus Azeem, an anti-corruption crusader, urged the Special Prosecutor to submit the names of the heads of institutions hindering the work of the Office to the President to call them to order.
He said most of the heads of institutions were under the control of the Executive which could order for cooperation or face sanctions.
On the matter of interdiction of public officers under investigations, Mr Azeem called on the Special Prosecutor to draw the attention of the heads of institutions to the provision on interdiction and educate them on its applicability.
As a public official with the mandate to end corruption in the country, he said, he understood the frustrations of Mr Amidu on the lack of cooperation from the heads of institutions and called on Ghanaians and civil society groups to fully support the Office in realisation of its objectives.
BY TIMES REPORTER
