Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga and Chief Whip Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor have drafted a private member’s bill seeking to repeal the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) Act and abolish the anti-corruption institution.
The draft bill has not yet been laid before Parliament.
The development coincides with President John Mahama’s remarks on Wednesday, describing calls to scrap the OSP as premature. Speaking at the Jubilee House during a courtesy visit by the National Peace Council, the President stressed that the office remains an essential pillar of Ghana’s anti-corruption architecture.
“I think it’s premature to call for the closure of that office,” he said. “The unique thing about that office is that it is the only anti-corruption agency that has prosecutorial powers to prosecute cases itself without going through the Attorney-General.”
President Mahama noted that widespread public distrust in the Attorney-General’s office perceived as part of the sitting government makes the independence of the OSP even more significant.
“People believe the Attorney-General will be very reluctant to prosecute his own,” he added. “But if there is an independent office like the Office of the Special Prosecutor, it won’t matter who you are, because they have security of tenure and the prosecutorial authority to act.”
The renewed debate over the future of the OSP comes amid mounting criticism of its efficiency and calls from various political and legal voices for its dissolution.
