Vitus Azeem, former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has explained that the maiden budget statement of the Akufo-Addo-led government was mute on the much touted Special Prosecutor because the office is yet to be set up.
According to him, the government will go back to parliament to seek funding in a supplementary budget after the office has been set up in the near future.
His comment follows concerns raised by some quarters that the President has gone back on his promise to establish the office as a way of fighting corruption in the public sector, because there was no mention of it in the national budget.
Mr Akufo-Addo gave the promise during the electioneering period following his conviction that corruption has eaten into the moral and social fabric of Ghanaian society especially among public office holders.
Speaking in interview with Class91.3FM’s Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on the 505 programme on Tuesday March 28, Mr Azeem said: “The position of the public prosecutor will be a public agency and so we shouldn’t expect an outsider to fund the office; it will be funded from the government budget, so I don’t think that is an issue at all.
“The Commission on Human Rights [and Administrative Justice] is being managed by the government, the Auditor General’s office is given money through the budget process, and so that is not an issue at all.”
He added that there was no mention of the Special Prosecutor in the maiden budget statement “because the office has not yet been set up”, adding: “The constitution provides for supplementary budget when the need arises, so when they go through the legal processes and the Office of the Public Prosecutor is set up, the Minister of Finance will come to parliament and ask for supplementary [funds] to cater for the office, so I don’t think that is an issue at all.”
