The Office Special Prosecutor (OSP) will from 2020 criminalise what it referred to as “Unexplained Wealth” of individuals and institutions in Ghana, in accordance with Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and co.
As part of its Corruption Prevention Programme in 2020, the Office has planned to, “push the agenda for the criminalisation of unexplained wealth”.
The Special Prosecutor however, submitted that, “this will place the burden of proof on public servants and private citizens to explain their excess earnings. In the same pursuit, the possibility would be explored to empower the OSP to investigate bank accounts of persons suspected to have committed infringements against Act 959”.
The Committee considered these planned initiatives laudable and called on relevant bodies to accord the OSP the maximum support for results.
This was contained in the report of the committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the annual budget estimates of the Office of The Special Prosecutor for the 2020 financial year.
The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, again indicated with “grave concern, the challenges his Office encountered in accessing critical information to aid investigations into alleged corruption or corruption related offences”.
He complained that, most of the requests made under the statutory authority of the OSP for information or production of documents from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to assist in investigation, were not complied with.
He disclosed that the situation remained the same despite frantic efforts to impress upon heads of the public institutions to respond positively to such important requests.
The Committee charged the OSP to utilise all the powers at his disposal in Act 959 to subpoena information which could assist in the fulfilment of its mandate.
The Committee acknowledged the challenges encountered by the OSP in the implementation of its 2019 Budget particularly the delayed completion of the new office building, which accounted for the OSP’s inability to be fully operational in 2019.
The Committee also notes the frantic efforts being made by his Excellency the President and the OSP to address the infrastructural and structural challenges facing the Office and it is hoped that the efforts would yield positive results to pave the way for the smooth implementation of the 2020 budget of the OSP, if approved by the House.
Based on the above, the House has approved the sum of ¢188,084,732.00 for the activities of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for the 2020 Financial Year.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah.
