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17.11.2018 Headlines

Committed Resource For Special Prosecutor Is ‘Good News’ – Vitus Azeem

By CitiNewsRoom
Committed Resource For Special Prosecutor Is Good News – Vitus Azeem
17.11.2018 LISTEN

Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem, has said the funds allocated to the office of the special prosecutor will go a long a way to enable the office deliver on its core mandate of fighting corruption in the country.

Since the swearing in of Mr. Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor in March 2018, he has complained bitterly about the non-allocation of funds to his office – a situation he said was hampering his ability to deliver.

But the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Thursday during the presentation of the 2019 budget, announced that GH¢180 million has been allocated to the Special Prosecutor's Office to be used to resource the office and strengthen it to fight corruption.

In an interview with Citi News, Vitus Azeem described as 'good news' the move by government to release funds to the special prosecutor's office after a long delay.

“It can be said to be good news after the long delay in the release of the funds the office of the special prosecutor requires. Because the bill was passed at the beginning of this year and one was expecting the allocation for the same year. But from the complaints from the office, it was obvious there was no budget or a reasonable for them to operate.”

“The office of the Special Prosecutor has a mandate, so if it gets the resources and the Legislative Instrument (LI) is approved by parliament, the office should be able to execute that mandate effectively and efficiently to the satisfaction of majority of Ghanaians”, he added.

Ken Ofori-Atta said the Special Prosecutor's Office is one of the highest priorities of government, and that aside from the allocation, government will in the course of next year provide more resources for the Special Prosecutor to perform his duties without hitches.

“In line with Government's promise to protect the public purse, His Excellency the President remains committed to the fight against corruption. In this budget, the Special Prosecutor's Office has been allocated an amount of GH¢180 million from GoG with a commitment to provide additional resources during the course of 2019 to enable the Special Prosecutor's Office to carry out its mandate.”

Calls for resignation
Many have called on the Special Prosecutor to resign from the office since his office has been deprived of funds to enable it to run effectively.

But a letter by Martin Amidu who had hint of the allocation before the budget reading, suggested that the allocation will partially solve some of the pressing financial, accommodation and logistical needs that impeded his office's work.

“It is my determination to build and equip this Office with such capabilities and infrastructure as will enable it to execute its mandate successfully and recover such assets as are the fruits of corruption that may more than payback to the national purse any budgetary allocations you could eventually make for establishment and operations of this Office,” the letter also said.

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