Akufo-Addo to decouple Attorney General from Ministry of Justice

The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has given the strongest indication that if elected president in 2016, he will take practical steps to root out corruption in government by appointing an independent prosecutor.

One such step, according to him, will be the creation of an office for a Special Prosecutor who will be independent of executive control in order to prosecute corrupt government officials.

Nana Akufo-Addo said this when he addressed a cross section of Ghanaians in the United Kingdom on Saturday.

Persons who will serve in this special office will not be chosen by the President but “by a formula that will ensure their independence and the capacity to do their work.”
He remarked that the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) as presently constituted is not strong enough to be the “fulcrum for the anti-corruption drive in our country.”

“It is an ombudsman, a human rights watchdog, and it is also an anti-corruption agency,” he noted.

These duties, he said, are too broad for one institution to undertake effectively, therefore, as President, he will take away the anti-corruption fight from CHRAJ and give that responsibility to the Office of Special Prosecutor.

The NPP flag bearer sent a strong warning to party faithful that if anybody was supporting his bid to the presidency because of money, they should stay off because corruption would not be tolerated in his administration.

“If your goal in coming into government is to enrich yourself, then don’t come. Go to the private sector. Public service is going to be exactly that; public service,” he said.

Challenges

One of the challenges militating against corruption in Ghana is the unwillingness of governments to prosecute their own officials who are involved in corruption.
This has led to calls for the separation of the office of the Attorney-General from the Ministry of Justice.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s solution to this, he said, would be to create the office of a Special Prosecutor, which will be independent of executive control.
In a press statement released by the UK Branch of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo was of the view that the responsibility of Ghanaians to the nation should be greater than “our responsibility to ourselves.”