Martin Amidu, the Special Prosecutor, has made some startling revelations why his Office is finding it difficult to prosecute corrupt officials of the present and past governments.
He said heads of institutions refuse to comply with laws designed to ensure good governance and to protect the public purse and accused the officials of deliberately sabotaging his work.
After being appointed as the Special Prosecutor, he has come under fire for the snail pace of his work to prosecute corrupt officials.
But Martin Amidu is blaming his inability to deliver as expected on a number of things including the lack of co-operation on the part of heads of institutions in the country, especially the Attorney-General and the Speaker of Parliament.
He disclosed that the Attorney-General wanted to pass a Legislative Instrument (LI) that would have made him what he describes as a “lame-duck”.
In an interview with the host of ‘Time With David’, David Ampofo, Amidu stated that “I had a lot of confrontations with the Attorney General about the way they wanted to set up the Office.
“They wanted to set up the Office as a lame-duck which I resisted. There are exchanges of letters which proves it but eventually, I got LIs which allowed us to work.”
He accused the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye, of interfering in his work of prosecuting corrupt Members of Parliament especially legislators accused of taking double salaries.
He explained that when he sent an MP to court, the Speaker invited him to his office, and tried to persuade him.
“He wrote to the judge with a certificate directing the judge how he should behave, the judge turned it down…there is nothing like bipartisan interference in the work of the office of Special Prosecutor when the legislature which made the law and gave the independence tries to interfere as to how it is executed,” he stressed.
“When ministers or former ministers take double salaries, one year now nothing has happened…that is an abuse of office for private profit, what is happening…I have made a statement about it, nobody is looking at that…everybody is looking at me…was I set up as a citizen vigilante to become a Special Prosecutor so that at the end of the day, failure would be put on me? Martin Amidu quizzed.
He added that the Special Prosecutor’s Office lacks the requisite resources, including personnel which will enable him to embark on a fight that brings the kind of results Ghanaians to want.
“In my three-bedroom house [Special Prosecutor’s Office], we have only one private secretary for my deputy, the secretary, accountant and for three investigators. How do you expect one secretary to do that [carry out her duties as expected]?
“The reason why we have not engaged [many hands] is by sheer lack of physical space. So who thought of putting that Office in such a small space.”
Amidu popularly known as the ‘Citizen Vigilante’ said appointees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are not helping him to fight the canker in the country.
“The President is a busy man, he works through so you don’t expect him to get up every day and say ‘what is happening’. If those officers are not helping the OSP, definitely the Special Prosecutor cannot do his job,” he said.
(Source: pulse.comgh)
