The Special Prosecutor’s Office must fulfil the legal provision to update the public of its activities at least twice a year, Mr. Michael Boadi, Funds Raising Manager at the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has said.
Mr. Boadi said the media must lead in demanding accountability from the Special Prosecutor to fulfil the legal provision that mandates him to provide the office’s activity report in a widely circulated newspaper.
He said this when answering a question on the activities of the Special Prosecutor when he spoke on the topic “The Fight Against Corruption, Is it a Mirage or Reality? during the 12th Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Offices “Stakeholder Engagement and Workers Appreciation Day” seminar-an initiative which creates a platform for state and non-state actors to address national issues.
The monthly engagement also serves as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters toward national development in general and the growth and promotion of the Tema GNA as the Industrial News Hub which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.
He said even though the report from the US State Department Report 2021, released on April 12, 2022, stated that the Special Prosecutor’s Office since its creation in 2018 was yet to prosecute any case that resulted in a conviction, does not mean there was no justification to have such an office.
“The setting up of the Special Prosecutor’s Office is still justifiable even though they are yet to successfully get anyone convicted for corruption, Ghanaians must know that it is easy to prosecute a murder case than corruption,” he added.
Mr. Boadi indicated that Ghana still needed to have such an officer who could not be fired by the President as and when he like to prosecute corruption cases.
He added that because the Attorney General was a Cabinet member and subject to the decisions of the President, they could not independently prosecute cases that involved their colleagues.
He said Ghanaians must be patient with the office explaining that prosecuting corruption cases must be done meticulously, adding that getting evidence for corruption was difficult as people hardly document issues, while due to cultural upbringing, people do not volunteer information.
Touching on the fight against corruption, he said to make meaningful gains in the fight, the public must be actively engaged in the formulating of policies and their implementation as the current approach seemed not to be working.
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager called on anti-corruption agencies to collaborate with the media to help expand the frontiers of the fight against corruption.
He urged media houses to organize regular training for their reporters to enable them to appreciate the role of the media in the fight against corruption.
Mr. Ameyibor advised media personnel to be guided by the ethics of their profession when reporting on corruption.
