EXPLAINER: Breakdown of what the OSP has been doing over the years

An Accra High Court on April 15, 2026, ordered the Attorney-General’s Department to immediately take over all criminal prosecutions currently being handled by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), pending formal authorisation from the Attorney-General’s office.

The ruling further directs that all cases previously handled by the OSP, whether they resulted in convictions or not, must be redone or retried.

In effect, every affected case will now fall under the Attorney-General’s Department for fresh prosecution.

This development has raised questions about the work done by the OSP over the past few years and what the High Court’s directive means for its ongoing and completed cases.

A look at the OSP’s performance tracker provides some context.

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The Office of the Special Prosecutor has been handling over 100 cases in recent years, with a significant number still under active investigation.

33 persons are currently facing trial in court out of the over 100 cases which the OSP is actively investigating.

78 of those cases are criminal charges that have been filed in the Ofori-Atta and others case.

Breakdown of cases handled by the OSP:

There are currently 8 ongoing criminal proceedings being handled by the OSP.

A total of 33 individuals are currently standing trial in various cases initiated by the office.

Civil proceedings being handled by the OSP stand at 10.

Ongoing investigations under the Office of the Special Prosecutor total 79, reflecting a substantial pipeline of cases yet to reach prosecution.

There are also several other cases under various stages of investigation. When all categories are combined, the total number of cases handled by the OSP comes to 161.

In terms of outcomes, the OSP has secured 7 specific convictions.

This suggests that while many cases are still in progress, the office has achieved some measurable success in prosecuting corruption-related offences.

Overall, these figures show the scale of work undertaken by the OSP in recent years, both in investigations and prosecutions.

However, following the High Court ruling, all these cases, ongoing, pending, and even concluded, are to be taken over by the Attorney-General’s Department.

Going forward, the ruling also means that the OSP cannot independently prosecute new cases without first seeking permission from the Attorney-General.

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