Delegate Power Of Appointment To Martin Amidu—CDD To President

The Center for Democratic Development (CDD) has appealed to the Office of the President to speed up the recruitment processes for the Office of the Special Prosecutor by delegating some of his powers of appointment guaranteed under the constitution.

This comes in the wake of revelations that the Office of the Special Prosecutor has only one lawyer under its employment for the over one year period the office has been in existence.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, May 13, 2019, the Head of Advocacy and Policy at the CDD, Dr. Kojo Asante, observed that a delegation can enhance the urgent recruitment of critical staff to ensure that the office of the Special Prosecutor is functional.

“To speed up recruitment, we will like to take this opportunity to respectfully request that the President, formally and urgently exercise his discretion to delegate his power of appointment of staff under article 195 (2) of the constitution. Per that article, he can delegate that power to the governing board or even to the OSP. A delegation can speed up the recruitment and further enhance the independence of the Office,” he said.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor has come under a barrage of criticisms from the public for doing little to fight pervasive corruption in the public sector as well as the private sector. Meanwhile, it has still not got the full complement of the Office to function to meet the demands of its mandate.

According to the CDD, after the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, they have seen slow progress but are optimistic that its better if all stakeholders play their part very well.

“After over a year since the Office of the Special Prosecutor was established, we have seen progress but it has not been fast enough to meet some of the expectations. But if we have lost time at the beginning, we should not lose more time now.

“As long as all stakeholders are committed, we should be able to make up for the lost time… From the assessment of a few issues that have to be resolved, we think that if they are done the OSP can become fully operational”.

There were a lot of expectations from the public following the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor. There were similar sentiments expressed when Former Attorney General, Martin Alamisi Amidu was announced as the Special Prosecutor.

In order to sustain public faith in the system, the CDD has urged the President to ensure that the Office is fully staffed.