The Editor-in-Chief of the Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azuri Awuni, says the Office of Ghana’s Special Prosecutor (SP) is under-resourced and needs help to function effectively.
With only one Deputy Special Prosecutor, an investigator, and a slashed budget, Mr. Awuni said the Office faces serious challenges.
The Editor-in-Chief and Investigative Journalist said any country that wants to fight corruption must be prepared to invest in it.
“If we really want to fight corruption then we should be prepared to fund the institutions that help us fight it,” he said. Mr. Awuni was speaking via telephone on GTV Breakfast Show.
Asked to assess the effectiveness of the Special Prosecutor after charging the former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei with 17 corruption-related charges, Mr. Awuni said it is too ‘early’ to make any pronouncement or judgment on the work of the Special Prosecutor.
He said until the Office of the Special Prosecutor is well resourced, it will be difficult to assess the effectiveness of the SP.
He urged Ghanaians to give the SP the needed time to work.“We have to be careful and exercise constraints,” Mr. Awuni said.
Former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Adjenim Boateng Adjei has been slapped with 17 corruption-related charges by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on August 22, 2019, suspended Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei from office, following the broadcast of allegations made against him in a publication by investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, titled “Contracts for Sale”.
Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei has been charged alongside his brother-in-law, Francis Kwaku Arhin, who has also been charged with one count of using public office for profit.
The two will be arraigned before the High Court in Accra on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
BELOW IS THE STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR KISSI AGYEBENG ON MAY 18, 2022.
