Participants in a group photograph
Participants of the recently held Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) anti-corruption dialogue, organised by Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the OSP, advocated for nationwide offices to help fight corruption in the country.
The engagement focused on strengthening the OSP’s anti-corruption mandate, gathering regional stakeholder feedback, and reviewing findings from an eight-year assessment of the OSP.
The participants unanimously championed the need for nationwide offices, indicating that the decentralisation of the OSP to the regions and districts will help citizens furnish it with information. It also came up that for the Special Prosecutor to enjoy permanency and hold politicians accountable for their corrupt dealings, a person occupying the seat of Special Prosecutor must not be appointed by the President but by a special body, as is done in Kenya.
The participants also advocated for the OSP to be entrenched in the constitution to make it difficult to be toyed with by politicians.
Addressing participants earlier on the work of the office over the last eight years, a consultant to the OSP and lecturer from the University of Ghana, Dr. Zechariah Langnel, maintained that although the OSP failed when subjected to Jakarta Principles which determined effectiveness of an organisation or otherwise, the office has done well and should be supported in its fight against corruption.
According to him, to assess the successes of an organisation, it must be measured against what is called the Jakarta Principles, thereby looking at its mandate, permanency, performance, mode of appointment, financial autonomy, and constitutional status, among others. “When we subjected the work of the OSP against the above principles, it failed in most of the yardsticks. However, looking at what it has done over the years, it has done well in its mandate,” he stressed.
He stated that if Ghana is to succeed in the corruption fight, “it must go the Chinese way where corruption is regarded as a life and death issue”. On the achievements of the OSP, an official from the office, Bright Owusu, said the OSP, since its existence, has secured seven convictions, some of whom pleaded for plea bargain. “It must be noted that in the plea bargains, the corrupt official pays more than what was squandered. In addition, the OSP averted GH¢7.18 billion which otherwise would have been lost to the state, and received another GH¢35.14 million for the state coffers.”
FROM Daniel Y. Dayee, Sunyani