Acting Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has explained that the office of the Special Prosecutor will be free from any interference, adding that not even the President will be able to meddle in the affairs of the office.
“It will not be subject to any control by anybody, not even the president’s office, and that is what the president has decided to happen,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, January 2, 2017, appended his signature to the bill setting up the Special Prosecutor office after it was approved by Parliament in November 2017.
Akufo-Addo used the opportunity to also accent to four other bills including the Zongo Development Fund Bill, and the three National Development Authority Bills.
It won’t be independent – NDC
Members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have argued that the office cannot be independent since the Special Prosecutor will certainly be someone aligned to the NPP.
General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had warned that the Office risks being a lame duckif the official expected to lead the office is not independently appointed.
“I want to remind them that if they are going to appoint another NPP lawyer as the independent prosecutor, then you would have wasted the nation’s time and resources in making that law. It is because of the difficulty of an NPP lawyer as the Attorney General trying to prosecute offenders within the NPP government that we decided that, let us get an independent prosecutor,” the NDC General Secretary added.
But speaking on Ekosii sen on Asempa FM on Tuesday, the acting NPP Chairman said the government will do everything possible to make the Office independent.
“When the person is appointed, it is supposed to be subjected to Parliament; Parliament will agree to it by overwhelming majority…we want to make it independent just like in other countries. We all have to work towards that to make sure it succeeds,” he added.
About Special Prosecutor Office
The Office of the Special Prosecutor marks the fulfillment of a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
The Bill defined the modalities for the appointment and operations of the Special Prosecutor, which will have the mandate to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged corruption under the Public Procurement Act 203 Act 63, and other corruption-related offences implicating public officers, political office holders and their accomplices in the public sector.
