Governance think-tank, Alliance for Social Equity, and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has said the nonperformance of the office of the “Special Prosecutor is largely due to the incompetence” of the Martin Amidu as the head of the office.
ASEPA in an assessment report on the work of Martin Amidu since he was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo indicated that he must be impeached for incompetence.
The governance think-tank said “In accordance with the law, we recommend that the processes of Article 146 be activated to impeach Mr. Amidu on the grounds of incompetence.
“We believe that a new person appointed to that office would bring more effective leadership to the office, which may result in a more positive result for the office and help the office regain the initial glory it has lost under the leadership of Mr. Martin A.B.K Amidu.”
In its report, it recommended that “The current position of the law does not allow the occupant of the Special Prosecutor to be fired; we recommend that the law is reviewed to allow the occupant of the office of the Special Prosecutor to be fired for non-performance.
“We recommend that the office of the Attorney General and the board of the OSP, supervise the proper setting of the structures of the office of the Special Prosecutor to ensure effective investigation, prosecution and other administrative duties since Mr. Amidu has been unable to do so since he was appointed.”
Here’s the full report by ASEPA:
SPECIAL REPORT ASSESSMENT OF THE 30 MONTHS IN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR
BACKGROUND
In January 2018, in fulfillment of the campaign promise of President Akufo-Addo, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was created by an Act of Parliament.
The creation of the office was greeted with a lot of enthusiasm and public acceptance. The cancer of corruption that was almost swallowing the country up was given some legal remedy that was going to help curb it.
Subsequent to that, the President named Mr. Martin A.B.K Amidu as the first occupant of that office.
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The appointment of Mr A.B.K Amidu received a lot of public praise for two reasons. 1. Because he was NOT a member of the President’s Party 2. And also because Mr. Amidu had been active in several corruption cases against his own political party.
Therefore, the expectations of the public for Mr Amidu to deliver was never in doubt.
KEY OBSERVATIONS
Thirty Months down the line, below are our overall assessment of Mr Martin Amidu and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
-The Office of the Special Prosecutor has NOT initiated any legal proceedings against any major corruption Scandal that has happened between 2018-2020.
-Reports on major investigations conducted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor have NEVER been made public.
-The Office of the Special Prosecutor has been adequately resourced by the Government with un-used budgetary allocations returned to the State coffers for two conservative years.
-The Special Prosecutor has NO well-structured investigative and prosecution unit in place accounting for the general lack of performance.
-The Special Prosecutor does NOT maintain a good working relationship with his staff, thereby creating an atmosphere of confusion in the office, partly accounting for his redundancy.
-The Special Prosecutor has turned his office into a book review centre, instead of a prosecution unit.
-The non-performance of the office of the Special Prosecutor has further deepened that lack of confidence in the state offices of accountability.
READ MORE: Martin Amidu drags Attorney General to court over €47m Waterville judgment debt
-The non-performance has also contributed to the lower rankings of Ghana in the global corruption perception indices.
RECOMMENDATIONS
-The current position of the law does NOT allow the occupant of the Special Prosecutor to be fired; we recommend that the law is reviewed to allow the occupant of the office of the Special Prosecutor to be fired for non-performance.
-We recommend that the office of the Attorney General and the board of the OSP, supervise the proper setting of the structures of the office of the Special Prosecutor to ensure effective investigation, prosecution and other administrative duties since Mr Amidu has been unable to do so since he was appointed.
CONCLUSION
Considering the number of issues arising from the assessment, we believe that the nonperformance of the office of the Special Prosecutor is largely due to the incompetence of Mr A.B.K Amidu (The Special Prosecutor).
In accordance with the law, we recommend that the processes of Article 146 be activated to impeach Mr Amidu on the grounds of incompetence.
We believe that a new person appointed to that office would bring more effective leadership to the office which may result in a more positive result for the office and help the office regain the initial glory it has lost under the leadership of Mr Martin A.B.K Amidu.
Mensah Thompson
Executive Director,
ASEPA
