Former President of the Ghana Bar Association, Sam Okudzeto, has criticised the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), insisting that the institution has failed to justify its existence and must be scrapped.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on December 8, Mr Okudzeto questioned the very foundation on which the office was created.
He said the country must now confront a simple question: “Why was the institution set up? Has it achieved its purpose?”
When host Evans Mensah asked for his assessment, Mr Okudzeto did not hesitate. “I don’t think so,” he responded.
“That is exactly the issue that I’m trying to drive here. He hasn’t achieved his purpose because the corruption is still on. I see it every day. Everywhere you turn in every institution, you see it openly.
“They are not even afraid. People are no longer even afraid. You go there, and they demand money from you to do this for you, when you already paid.”
Pressed on whether scrapping the OSP was the answer, he stated plainly that the office has outlived its usefulness.
“Yeah, I’m saying that that institution is not achieving its purpose. Because look at it this way, you have an Attorney General’s Department. In that department, they have a civil section, and then they have a prosecutorial section. This one is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“The other one is headed by the Solicitor-General. What is the Director of Public Prosecutions supposed to do? He’s supposed to prosecute criminal offences, which will include corruption, corruption-related offences.
“There is nothing which makes corruption any more different than any other crime. We have a Director of Public Prosecutions, that is his job. Why do you create another institution to do the same job? That’s the whole issue.”
Responding to suggestions that the OSP was established as a special-purpose vehicle dedicated solely to corruption, he argued that Ghana got it wrong from the start.
“You see, in other places where you have this special prosecutor, it means that there is a specific problem that has arisen, and you want that person to go there and solve that problem.
“You don’t create the whole institution for it, as we have done. If you like, you can go and search and ask where and where do we have that kind of institution?”
Mr Okudzeto referenced global examples to support his position.
“You see, the Prime Minister of England, you know what his position was before? You know how he got the knighthood? He was the Director of Public Prosecution. Justice D. F. Annan, who became the Speaker of Parliament, was also Director of Public Prosecution.”
He aligned himself fully with those calling for the OSP to be scrapped and the Attorney General’s office strengthened instead.
“That is what should have been done,” he said.
“But I suspect that somebody thought that corruption was too rampant in the country, and, therefore, to create an institution for that purpose was a good idea. And then, of course, you appoint an individual.
“Don’t forget, it’s just an individual you’ve appointed. Then you are now trying to create an institution around that individual. What is the background of that? That’s the question I ask. What is his background of that individual?”
He cautioned that the entire experiment was flawed from the beginning.
“I’m just saying that when you don’t train people to do a job, you think that creating institutions, particularly when they think it’s just an individual, it’s dangerous… It’s very, very dangerous.”
Mr Okudzeto stressed that Ghana already has the structures to prosecute corruption, and the focus should be on strengthening those systems rather than building parallel institutions that deliver little.
