Kissi Agyebeng still putting things in place to operationalize Special Prosecutor’s office
Ghana’s new Special Prosecutor Lawyer Kissi Agyebeng has revealed that he is still at a stage where he is striving to deal with problems associated with the Special Prosecutors Office.
Lawyer Kissi Agyebeng was nominated on April 26, 2021, by the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to replace Martin Amidu, the former Special Prosecutor who resigned on November 16, 2020. During an interview on Starr FM monitored by myactiveonline.com, he revealed that he is still on course to finally operationalize the office which was established in 2017.
He explained saying “What we are doing now is we are actually building the ship as we are sailing… it has been established but hadn’t been set up and hadn’t been operationalized.”
Mr Agyebeng revealed that “not a single division” was in place when he took over.
The Special Prosecutor Act stipulates that there should be a formation of Finance and Administration division, Asset Recovery and Management division, Investigations division and Prosecutions division.
But in response to how he is tackling the issues associated with his new office, he said dwelling on complaints would have been counterproductive.
“If I was going to figure out why we don’t have an HR or why don’t we have this division or why don’t we have that division, I don’t think it would have been helpful.”
The first move the new special prosecutor has taken in operationalizing the office was moving to a new and spacious place.
Mr Agyebeng was of the view that the absence of bigger office space would have prevented him from increasing his staff strength of nine.
“The main problem was space. There was no space [at the old office], so even if we were going to recruit today, the new staff would not get anywhere to sit.
“I don’t have a board now, so for a lot of the things, I need the board’s approval, for instance, when you talk about recruitment and all that.
“So the things I can do at my level without the board’s input, I am doing [them],” he said.
He assures that as they are still on course the Special Prosecutor’s office will become fully operational to achieve the mandate it has been assigned to do.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
