The Special Prosecutor (SP) nominee, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng has promised to make corruption a very expensive and non lucrative endeavor. He said this when faced the Vetting Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, July 22, 2021.
In a rather honest admission, Lawyer Kissi Agyebeng said that corruption can not be eradicated completely from the system but can be made unattractive.
“I am not naive to assume that I am coming to stop corruption. There’s no way I can stop corruption. God himself will not acclaim to that ,but I am going to make corruption very costly to engage in.”
Ghana over the years have lost millions of cedis of the tax payer to various acts of corruption and the country’s raking on the global corruption perception index leaves much to be desired.
Pessimist thinks the Office of the Special Prosecutor(OSP) is just a duplication of already existing arrangements meant to fight corruption, in their view, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service (CID) amongst others should be empowered enough to fight the canker rather than creating another office to win cheap political points, but the SP nominee was optimistic that the Office of the Special Prosecutor is the surest way to nib corruption in the bud.
“The day we scrap this [Special Prosecutor] office is the day we say goodbye to our fight against corruption. Its relevance is borne out of its attributes and uniqueness.It is unique as compared to all other law-enforcement agencies in respect of its mandate. No other institution has been carefully thought out and designed to fight corruption specifically as Act 959 had done.”
Issues of assets declaration and unexplained wealth came up on the vetting table because over the years government have had a though time in dealing with the subject. Some public officer who hitherto had “nothing” before entering into public service turn to have so much within a ” trickle of an eye” .
Mr. Agyebeng suggested that:”If we are to place unexplained wealth in proper context, I will say that if the person cannot reasonably explain as matched against his lawful income the amount of money in question, then that aspect, in my opinion, should be criminalised. But if you can reasonably explain how you came by that amount of money, then that should be acceptable.”
In response to weather he had what it takes to fill the ” shoes” of the immediate past SP Mr. Martin Amidu, Lawyer Agyebeng had this to say as:
“There was a reference to filling the heavy shoes of a named individual but I’ll prefer to wear my own shoes in the sense that I’m my own man and I’m coming with my own experiences and professional training. In this quest my conscience and learning of the law are going to be my guide.”
Mr. Martin Amidu had to resign as Special Prosecutor Amidu on the Monday, November 16 2020 citing ” political interference in the independence of his office” for the decision.
In one of Mr. Amidu’s epistles he described his proposed successor as a surrogate and associates of the Agyapa transaction. The SP nominee however sharply denied any involvement in the deal.
“I was not involved in Agyapa transaction in any form or manner. The truth of the matter ought to be told, I was not involved in the deal.Whoever says I am a surrogate of a law firm or implicates me in the Agyapa transaction clearly does not know me because if you know me you wouldn’t make such allegations. All these things that came up, I took them as coming from uninformed positions because I was not involved in the Agyapa transaction in any form or manner.”
By:Wisdom Adekurah/mywordfmonline.com