GH¢129m out of GH¢322m budgetary allocation was used by Martin Amidu – Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance has released a ‘Budget Performance Report’ covering 2018 to 2020 which shows funds allocated to the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The report indicates that the Office of the Special Prosecutor which was led by Martin Amidu failed to use the resources available to it.

The report sighted by GhanaWeb revealed that Amidu utilized GH¢129,016,189.52 out of the GH¢322,097,921.40 budgetary allocations made to his office from 2018 to 2020.

“The Office of the Special Prosecutor’s approved ceiling of GH¢180.16m for the year 2019 increased significantly as compared to the revised allocation of GH¢138.14m given for year 2020,” a part of the finance ministry’s report read. “The year 2018 recorded the lowest allocation of GH¢3.79m and this could be attributed to the fact that the Office had now been established and their allocation formed part of the 2018 budget of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Office.”

The report further revealed: “With regards to releases made to the Office under the various economic classifications, amounts of GH¢154,261.84 and GH¢65,690,067.55 were released as [of] the end of the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years. Also, an amount of GH¢63,171,860.13 has been released as of 16 November 2020.”

The report from the Ministry of Finance was to counter claims by Martin Amidu that he and his deputy had not been paid their emoluments since they were appointed.

Amidu stated in his resignation letter addressed to the President on Monday, November 16, 2020, that, even though he was appointed and sworn into office in 2018, he received his appointment letter clearly stating his conditions of service, among other things only this year.

Amidu wrote: “It is essential for me to state for the purpose of the records, and contrary to public perceptions, that my appointment letter was received on 5 February 2020 (almost two (2) years after my appointment). The copy addresses made no efforts to honour any of the conditions of appointment in terms of emoluments and benefits of the appointment ever since my warrant of appointment was issued on 23 February 2018 to the date of my letter of resignation.”

Amidu continued: “I accepted the offer on 10 January 2018 to be nominated to be Special Prosecutor because Mr. President and Ghanaians knew I have been an anti-corruption crusader all my life and not an anti-corruption entrepreneur. This explains why I have never put the emoluments and benefits of the Office as central to my commitment and my passion for the establishment of an independent, effective, efficient and impartial anti-corruption Office of the Special Prosecutor before the end of the first term of Mr. President. This has not been possible for several reasons. The Deputy Special Prosecutor has also not been paid any emoluments since her appointment, and there is the need to redress that situation for her now that I am out of the way.”

Read below the full report from the Ministry of Finance.