Mills criticized for handling of bribery investigations

Accra, Oct. 8, GNA - The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) on Thursday said it was wrong for President John Evans Atta Mills to send only the Attorney General (A-G) to investigate the Mabey and Johnson's (M&J) bribery scandal in the UK.

It said the President should have composed a team of independent bodies comprising personnel from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, as well as members of both the Majority and Minority in Parliament to accompany the A-G on the mission to ensure transparency.

Mr Anthony Karbo, Spokesperson for AFAG, said at a press conference in Accra, that though Article 88(3) of the 1992 Constitution stated the functions of the A-G, including the initiation of all criminal offences, the Constitution was silent in granting investigative powers to the A-G. "Since the Attorney General does not have any investigative powers, which she can lawfully exercise in the UK by way of conducting in-depth investigations into the operations of M&J in the UK, the question then again is of what use is her visit to Great Britain?"

According to AFAG, the A-G could not question any institutionalised body in the UK since she had no jurisdiction in that country to conduct an investigation into corrupt practices in that country. "She could only ask or request for and be handed over by the UK court or SFO the same documents which are already available in the hands of the media in Ghana."

AFAG said when news of the trial of M&J broke out the first step the President ought to have taken was to submit a letter of request to the British Home Secretary who in turn would have forwarded it to the SFO in Ghana for action.

"This would have enabled the SFO to furnish the Ghana government with all the information in its domain under the SFO's mutual legal assistance programme.

"There would have been therefore no need to send the Attorney-General to go and fish for information from the UK which could have been easily accessed by Ghana's High Commissioner in the UK at no added expense to the Ghanaian taxpayer". AFAG has called on all government officials who were implicated in the scandal to immediately resign or face the sack. 8 Oct. 09