Amidu Needs Board And Office ― GII

It has been months since Mr. Martin Alamisi Amidu was appointed by the government of Ghana as the Special Prosecutor (SP) and some civil society groups have questioned why government is not expedient in properly setting up the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Linda Ofori-Kwafo says the absence of deputy SPs and a board to stir affairs, makes the office incomplete and dysfunctional.

According to her, the undue delay by the President in appointing a deputy SP and Board members needed for the running of the office would defeat the purpose for its setup.

In the law establishing the OSP, a Board must be appointed to assist with policy direction. A month on, this has not been done.

Speaking at an orientation workshop for Anti-Corruption Grant Partners, the GII director charged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to speed up the process.

“My expectation is that we would have seen great moves in its strides by now, we would have seen a full office setup, would have seen the deputies being named, would have seen the deputies who are supposed to go through the vetting, going through it, the board being formed and work starting but now we don’t know what is really happening.

“I think it is time to ask the president the right questions as to when we are going to have the OSP being more functional so far as the anti-corruption fight is concerned,” Madam Linda Ofori-Kwafo noted.

A fortnight ago, Citi News in an exclusive, exposed the physical state of the OSP and concluded that “the infrastructure generally looked incomplete and unprepared for the intended task.”

Linda Ofori-Kwafo further noted that the public was growing out of patience and appealed to the president to act fast.

“The individual (SP) is ready to work but there would be need for some few administrative works to be done and we call on government that set it up to be ready and willing to push this one forward so we can get some cases investigated.

“We have a plethora of allegations of corruption and there is a need for investigations to start,” she added.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]