My office ‘almost hopeless’ to fight corruption – Martin Amidu laments

The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has hinted that his office is in a near hopeless situation to deliver its mandate in fighting corruption.

In an article, the former Attorney General said his office has so far had “woefully inadequate” infrastructure and has been under-resourced since its establishment a year ago.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor was established in November 2017 with a specific mandate to oversee cases of corruption, involving public officers and individuals in the private sector.

Many Ghanaians were upbeat following the appointment of Mr. Amidu as the country’s first-ever Special Prosecutor, however the “Citizen Vigilante” has so far failed to make an effective impact at his new role.

Mr. Amidu has compared his situation to that of that of Acting Attorney General of the US Mathew Whitaker, insisting a lack of resources has left the Special Prosecutor’s Office in an almost hopeless situation to fight corruption.

“The Whitaker’s scenario which I have just read reinforces my own conviction that the effective way to stifle the fight against corruption is to apply Whitaker’s scenario. It also reminds me of the almost utter hopelessness in which the newly established Office of the Special Prosecutor finds itself almost one year after the President caused its establishment as his flagship and vision to fight corruption in Ghana with an overwhelming national consensus and support,” Mr. Amidu lamented.

“One year down the line it has only a small three bed room house as an Office woefully inadequate for lack of shear physical space to accommodate any reasonable number of employees, lack of subsidiary legislation, and consequently also financially crippled without any ability to acquire the requisite expensive operational anti-corruption and other equipment for the Office let alone to function efficiently.”

He said despite President Akufo-Addo’s sincere commitment to fighting corruption, government has done very little to support the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

According to him, the office has so far lacked the resources to adequately deliver on its mandate.

“Creating unilateral unrealistic and crippling budget ceilings for such a deprived agency has same effect as the Whitaker scenario. By analogical reasoning the Whitaker scenario reported by the Associated Press resembles the situation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor since its establishment in spite of the President’s sincere commitment to his vision,” Mr. Amidu added.