According to him, some institution heads have so far refused to provide his office with the needed information to fulfil its mandate.
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Amidu threatens to sue heads of institutions frustrating his work
The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has threatened legal action against heads of public institutions who are frustrating the work of his office.
Amidu threatens to sue heads of institutions frustrating his work
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Mr. Amidu warned that he may be compelled to sue the state to release some documents to help with investigations into certain cases.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor Act empowers the Office to enforce the production of information and documents in the Courts against any public institution that fails or refuses to honour the lawful request of the Office,” Mr. Amidu wrote in his latest article.
“This Office can also go to the High Court to compel heads of institutions to obey the laws that support the fight against corruption. The consequence will be that in accordance with the civil procedure rules this Office will have to sue the Attorney General as the representative of the State.”
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The Special Prosecutor said there have been other occasions where some heads of public institution have tried to interfere with investigations being carried out by his office.
Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu
Pulse Ghana
“Heads of institutions wantonly disregard statutory requests made by the Office for information and production of documents to assist in the investigation of corruption and corruption-related offences, in spite of the fact that the President has, on a number of occasions, admonished them on such misconduct.
“There have also been cases where some heads of institutions have made it their habit to interfere with and undermine the independence of this Office by deliberately running concurrent investigations falling within the jurisdiction of this Office with ongoing investigations in this Office for the sole purpose of aborting investigations into corruption and corruption-related offences,” he added.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor was established in November 2017 with a specific mandate to oversee cases of corruption, involving public officers and individuals in the private sector.
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Many Ghanaians were upbeat following the appointment of Mr. Amidu as the country’s first-ever Special Prosecutor, however the “Citizen Vigilante” has so far failed to make an effective impact at his new role.
This has led to criticisms from a section of the public, with some requesting answers from the former Attorney-General.
However, Mr. Amidu said his office has not been able to fully deliver on its mandate due to some legal and logistical constraints.
He explained that he has “only three seconded investigators from the Ghana Police Service with no prosecutor employed directly by the Office for obvious bureaucratic and technical reasons.”
He added, though, that his office has “managed to investigate and arraigned a number of public officers before the High Court for prosecution” despite these constraints.
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