Batidam - Office of Special Prosecutor Needless

A former Chairperson of the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption, Daniel Batidam, has described the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a needless waste of public resources.

According to him, the President had failed to show commitment to the Office of the Special Prosecutor in the fight against corruption and combating corruption would take more than the Office of Special Prosecutor to make strides.

Mr Batidam challenged the president to go back and implement the anti-corruption action plan passed by the previous government saying, "If President Akufo-Addo wants to do anything about fight against corruption, there are a number of things he has to do.

"The first is to go back to where President Mahama left off with the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Action Pan and begin to engage the multiplicity of stakeholders including public institutions and public investigative bodies.

"The BNI, CHRAJ and others were beginning to work with understanding so that they will make their investigations more effective, more efficient in order to be able to enhance the prosecutorial aspect of our fight against corruption.

"It's not about creating offices, what the President has done is a needless waste of public resources, he wants to give excuses to say look, I'm committed, I've appointed a Special Prosecutor, but you have heard Mr Amidu himself say it is not enough to appoint him as Special Prosecutor, there are other pre-conditions including the Legislative Instrument and also the body language of people in government," Mr Batidam bemoaned.

Since assuming office as the Special Prosecutor in February this year, Martin Amidu has bemoaned the lack of resources and cooperation from government appointees and institutions.

Meanwhile, the government has allocated GH?180 million to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to help it function effectively announced by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in the 2019 Budget and Policy Statement on November 15, 2018 in Parliament. -classfmonline.com

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