Special Prosecutor, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng, has made some scandalous disclosure about the state of the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) when he took over.
According to him, he was shocked to the bone when he first visited the place shortly after he was sworn into office on Thursday 5th August 2021 and discovered the place was a total mess, especially in view of the fact the office was established in 2018
More shocking, he said, was the discovery that the office had a total of only ten workers but with only one person on payroll.
He noted that the law that established the Office mandated the Special Prosecutor to employ staff and to create departments among other things but until August 2021 when he took over, the office had not been set up and operationalized and existed only in name.
“I checked all the documents with respect to the establishment of the OSP, so I was expecting the place to have been established with something to show work progressing.”
“Unfortunately, when I went to the place and entered the office there was nothing; completely nothing. There were no chairs and no place for visitors to even sit and a very tiny room serving as office,” he said.
The new Special Prosecutor disclosed these during an interview on Peace Fm’s morning show, Kokrokoo, on Thursday 30th September, 2021.
Kissi Agyebeng said he was extremely shocked and wondered if this was the office he was expected to occupy and work in as the new Special Prosecutor.
According to him, when he went through the files he discovered a huge office complex, a 10-storey building constructed by GETFund had been allocated to the SP to use, so he drove there to check out the place.
“Within one hour of going through the documents, I took my security detail and visited the office complex and it was empty, there was nothing there.”
“I thought there is such a spacious place enough to accommodate all staff of the OSP and we are holed up in a tiny accommodation. So less than one month I had relocated the Office to the 10-storey office complex.”
“When I checked why the former SP had not moved to the much larger office, there was nothing really except ridiculous accusations and counter-accusations.”
According to Mr. Agyebeng, he came from the private sector and had shed sweat and tears to establish his small firm where he worked and noted if circumstances have changed and there is already a huge building where he could work comfortably then there is no need for delay.
He indicated that when he took over only one person was actually a staff of the Special Prosecutor and that all the rest were secondments from various institutions.
“An office that has been established to investigate, prosecute, prevent corruption and conduct asset recovery had only one prosecutor, who was a secondment from the Attorney General’s office and another person from Sunyani who travels all the way to Accra whenever there was a case.”
“There was only one investigator. I understood they were supposed to be three but two had resigned before I came into office,” he added.
One other person, he said, also resigned immediately he took over leaving nine workers and judging from the magnitude of the job the OSP is expected to do, it is virtually a one-man job.
He explained that in the 2019 Appropriation Act, the OSP setup is supposed to have 251 workers and stressed he realized he had a major job to do to staff the office and added, “As a Special Prosecutor, I alone cannot do the work.”
Mr. Agyebeng averred that though he received the handing over notes of his predecessor, he could not go to him for further information because Mr. Martin Amidu launched a blistering attack on his person after his nomination though they are not acquainted in any way.
“This is why I said I don’t want to back to the past. Since the office has not been established I will have to set up and operationalize it and will not need to go to anybody who does not respect me for advice,” he said.
Source: Mypublisher24.com