After nearly four hours of scrutiny by Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Special Prosecutor nominee-Lawyer Kissi Agyebeng, 43, following a dazzling performance, was yesterday recommended for approval to start work.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, Joe Osei Owusu, the recommendation was a unanimous decision.
Parliament will later debate the report of the committee and decide on whether the nominee should be approved or rejected.
“We [will] put our recommendation [forward] for the House to determine whether to approve or disapprove of our recommendation. As to how other people view his [KissiAgyebeng’s] answers, I’d rather leave it to them and stay within the rules to make recommendations to the House. The committee unanimously agreed to recommend him [KissiAgyebeng] to the House for approval,” Joe OseiOwusu said.
Corruption
Mr. Agyebengfielding answers on how he would fight corruption said he will rather focus on making it difficult to engage in the canker than placing emphasis on stopping it.
He intimated, “I am not naive to assume that I am coming to stop corruption. There’s no way I can stop corruption. God himself will not acclaim to that but, I am going to make corruption very costly to engage in.”
“First, I am going to institute what I call ‘Pressure for Progress’ and in this quest, there will be a systemic review of all public sector institutions and the development of integrity plans.”
Another hurdle KissiAgyebeng scaled was one on the role he played in the Agyapa deal to which he said “Those saying I am a surrogate of a law firm or implicate me in the Agyapa transaction clearly do not know me. Because if you know me, you won’t make such allegations. And all these things that came up, I took it as coming from uninformed positions.
“Because I was not involved in Agyapa transactions in any form or manner or any stretch of the imagination, however, fertile,” he added.
Recall that the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, GodfredYeboah Dame, nominated Mr. Agyebeng, a law lecturer and private legal practitioner, as a replacement for Martin Amidu, who resigned from the position in November 2020 under very controversial circumstances.
KissiAgyebeng was called to the Ghana Bar in October 2003 and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Ghana, as well as, Master of Laws (LLM) degrees from Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada, and Cornell Law School, USA.
He has, since 2006, been teaching Criminal Law at the University of Ghana, whilst engaging in private law practice.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor has the mandate to investigate and prosecute all suspected corruption and corruption-related offenses as pertaining to public officers, politically exposed persons, and persons in the private sector alleged to have been involved in any corruption and corruption-related offenses.
Apart from initiating investigations on its own, Act 959 gives the Office of the Special Prosecutor the power to receive and investigate complaints of alleged corruption from the public or investigate suspected corruption or corruption-related offenses upon referral from public bodies such as the Attorney General’s Department, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
