Private legal practitioner Dr Rainer Akumperigya has cast doubts on the ability of the Office of the Special Prosecutor to fight corruption in Ghana.
According to him, the office is merely an institution of convenience which has no competency to fight corruption.
The Special Prosecutor’s office was established in 2017 to make corruption and corruption related offences a high risk enterprise with the mandate to investigate and prosecute alleged corruption or suspected corruption and corruption related offences and also to recover the proceeds of corruption and corruption related offences.
Following the nomination of a renowned Lawyer Kisi Agyebeng by the Attorney General as the next Special Prosecutor, there have been various reactions to the nomination with concerns over his age and purported affiliation with government.
But Speaking on Dreamz fm’s State of Our Nation, Dr Rainer Akumperigya argued that prior to the establishment of the SP’s office, there were enough anti-corruption institutions already in existence to fight corruption. These institutions he noted can succeed if they are given the needed support to execute their mandate.
“Prosecutorial powers are vested in the Attorney General under Article 88. The Act 959 could not purport to guarantee the Special Prosecutor that power to prosecute without recourse to the Attorney General. So we have done nothing,” he said.
He stated further that “This is the reason why our nomination process of the Special Prosecutor, it is the Attorney General who starts the process by nominating someone under section 13 of the Special Prosecutor Act 2018 Act 959. It is the Attorney General who nominates the person. This is to reconcile or create the balance and not to seem like taking the powers away from the Attorney General under Article 88, otherwise then Act 959 will be unconstitutional. So I’m saying that it is an institution of convenience”.
The law lecturer further noted that conversations bothering on corruption and its fight has become exhausting and will need a strong political will to deal with.
“It is very exhausting now to talk about corruption in this country, it is very very exhausting. I’m not exhausted entirely talking about corruption because it seems to be an issue that will never go away. This is not an issue for one government. This is an issue that we must take a national view and if we interested in fighting corruption, institutions that are setup to fight it need our support,” he said.
