The Office of Special Prosecutor was set up to fail - Vitus Azeem

Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Adaboo Azeem, has reacted to the recent outburst from the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, as he describes the recent developments from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as not surprising.

The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng in a recent interview bemoaned the lack of support and funds from the government which in turn handicaps the institution’s line of work in prosecuting corrupt officials.

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.tv Ghana’s “Fact Sheet”, Vitus Adaboo Azeem believes that the accusations by the Special Prosecutor further validate claims that the ruling government is not committed to the fight against corruption.

He chastised the Akufo-Addo led administration for not doing enough in the fight against corruption as he recounted several promises made by the President during previous electoral campaigns.

According to him, Ghana has politicized the fight against corruption and until we adopt a holistic approach to discouraging corruption, the OSP will only exist as “just another dormant state institution”.

“When this government was campaigning for elections, they made several promises. The President was being described as incorruptible but then when the won the elections and came to power, we had a different view of the party. Martin Amidu was appointed the first prosecutor, got frustrated and left. Then we had the second appointment that’s the current Special Prosecutor and we thought that since he was perceived to have some relations with the current government he would be given the necessary resources. But he’s not given what he needs and that’s the fact. He’s the man in shoes and he’s saying he has not gotten the necessary support,” he said.

Outlining the indicators of lack of support and structural failure at the OSP, he furthered, “This is a national institution and have we ever head the Office of the Special Prosecutor open a new office outside Accra? Have we heard the office recruiting new staff and additional ones apart from what he inherited? Have we heard about the number of cases that he has investigated and the number of cases that he has prosecuted? The amount of money that he has been able to recover from people that has been alleged to have been corrupt? So once you don’t have these things, then it’s clear indication that he is not succeeding. He is not delivering because he has not gotten the necessary resources.”