Does Ghana Need A Special Prosecutor or We should Split The Attorney General Role?

In his speech at London, the President of Ghana Nana Addo said “We made a commitment to establish an office of special prosecutor which will have the mandate to investigate and prosecute acts of corruption….An office that will be independent of the Executive…The office is going to be established by an act of Parliament and it will have the remit to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials.”

It sounds very pleased to have a special prosecutor as suggested by the President to curb corruption in Ghana but does this offer a holistic solution to what the president is seeking to do? Personally, I think it is not! Because ones a special prosecutor is appointed by the Executive Branch of the government through an Act of Parliament, the chances of fixing corruption are rare, all things being equal. The Executive Branch of government in itself is questionable to appoint a special prosecutor because it is like selecting someone to defend you.

It is a good idea for the Parliament of Ghana to establish an Act but I don't think the Act should permit the Executive branch of government to appoint a special prosecutor. I offer the following, an Act of Parliament should be established to split the role of the Attorney General (AG) of Ghana. I think Ghana need a Justice Minister and an Attorney General. The Act of the Parliament should explicitly create these two roles where the Justice Minister will be appointed by the President and the Attorney General be appointed by the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Looking at the complexity of our government, it makes sense to have an Attorney General designated by the Supreme Court who will be separate from the government appointees and work directly for the people of Ghana. In this instance, the Attorney General can fully assume independent persecution of corrupt officials with less influence by the President. An AG appointed by the Supreme Court will work more independent than the one appointed by the President, all things being equal.

There is a model for my proposal. The Columbia system of government allows the Supreme Court to appoint Attorney General and the President appoints the Ministry of Justice and Law. We can learn a lot from Columbia because this has worked for them for many years. They have ups and downs of this practice which we can learn from them.

The Office of Attorney General of Columbia execute offenders, investigate crimes, examine judicial processes and charge penal law infringements against judges and court of justice. The Ministry of Justice and Law in Columbia is responsible for the enforcement of law and justice. It is the head of Justice and Law Sector that develop public policy with regards to justice and the protection of rights. This exactly Ghana wants, and I suggest we consider this.

Before you criticize me, think about the fact that the Executive branch of our government should not appoint everyone because it can lead to absolutism and the consequence is the promotion of corruption, all things being equal. At a certain point, we should consider that, to strengthen our independent institutions, we should allow the Supreme Court or the Parliament to appoint some government officials to check public servants.

So instead of appointing a special prosecutor, the president should split the role of the current Attorney General into two. The government will appoint the Justice Minister, and the Supreme Court appoints the Attorney General.