Creation of special prosecutor's office useless – Law Lecturer

A Law Lecturer and Security Expert at the University of Cape Coast has challenged the relevance of the Office of the Special Prosecutor seen by the Akufo-Addo led government as the panacea in fighting corruption in government institutions.

Dr. Kojo Tuffuor submits that corruption can only be lessened by strengthening existing institutions and not through appointing a special prosecutor.

According to him, constitutionally established institutions like CHRAJ and EOCO have the mandate to combat corruption.

“The Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) under section 1 is the only commission that can investigate any person in this country including a sitting president.

“We know how powerful that institution is….aside this, the criminal offenses act, act 29…there are a lot of things in there, [and we need]to send additional resources there while we can strengthen CHRAJ and other institutions to take care of corruption,” he argued.

Moving forward, he said the political zeal to fight the canker is also needed else a president will be in office for years and nothing will be done.

Meanwhile, Civil Society Organisations are calling for the position to be advertised, arguing that it will help recruit the most efficient person to serve in the planned anti graft office.

But the chairman for the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Ben Abdallah is not in support of idea contending that will be needless since provisions have been made in the Bill to guarantee independence of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

“The panelling or advertising for the position will be too cumbersome and circuitous,” the MP pointed out.

He said the Bill before Parliament requires that the Attorney General nominates the prospective prosecutor and then the president appoints before Parliament gives its approval.

“There are enough measures in the Bill to ensure the relative independence of the special prosecutor,” Abdallah told Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan.