The Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says a proposal by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to set up the office of Director of Public Prosecutions Unit to combat corruption is a recipe for disaster.
Samuel Atta Akyea says for Ghana to win the corruption fight there would be the need for the establishment of an independent prosecutor office which will not be answerable to the Attorney-General (A-G) who is a government agent.
Speaking at the Joy FM’s Ghana Connect programme in collaboration with Oxfam/IMANI, Friday, at the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) campus, the legislator said the reason Ghanaians believe the nation is losing the corruption fight is because they are convinced the A-G cannot prosecute people who are part of his/her party.
“Do you think you will have an A-G who will prosecute one of his own,” he quizzed.
President John Mahama has been criticised by his political opponents and anti-graft groups for what they say is the lethargic way he handles issues of corruption in his government.
They cited government’s handling of the corruption in the National Service Scheme in which at least 22,616 non-existent (Ghost names) were paid allowances in more than 100 districts in July 2014. The information came to public knowledge following expose by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).
Several NSS officials were found culpable and are standing on trials.
The Auditor-General’s 2014 Audit Report uncovered misappropriation of public funds, fraudulent transfers, illegal payments and receipts of public funds by public officials home and abroad under the auspices of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).
The Report found that 126 staff who could not pass interviews for placement as public officials were migrated as employees of the Agency and were paid a total of ¢895,536.18 as salaries between November 2012 to December 2013.
Although the anti-graft believes these incidents among others point to the inability of government to purge its rank of corruption, President Mahama said a lot has been done.
Addressing a 2015 high level conference on the National Anti-corruption Action Plan in Accra, the President said government retrieved the total of GHc38.9 million from both NSS and GYEEDA, representing money illegally taken from the national purse.
Ghana’s performance on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by the Transparency International has shown some improvement. The nation placed 7th in Africa in 2015.
President has attributed to gains in the corruption fight to the many measures his government has put in place. These include the inauguration of the High Level Implementation Committee that is overseeing the work of NACAP, the fight against cocoa smuggling and the collaborative work with the Chief Justice to restore public confidence in the Judiciary.
To sustain these gains, he promised during the launch of the NDC’s 2016 manifesto at the Sunyani Coronation Park that if given a second term he will “establish in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, a Unit dedicated to anti-corruption prosecutions, working with the anti-corruption institutions.”
But the Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South says if government is desirous of fighting corruption it should rather consider separating the Prosecutor’s office from the A-G.
“If we want serious anti-corruption drive we should get someone who will not operate at the behest of government,” he said, adding “if we go that way some fear will be [put in] public officials.”
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