Martin Amidu<\/p>\n
Special
\nProsecutor Martin Amidu has said categorically that his office does not have
\nthe mandate to investigate the ongoing brouhaha surrounding the Power
\nDistribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited concession which has been suspended
\nby the government.<\/p>\n
He
\nsaid people who should know better are trying to create the impression that the
\nOffice of the Special Prosecutor has the powers to enter into the PDS issue. He
\npointed out that he has \u201cvery limited jurisdiction apportioned to the Office of
\nthe Special Prosecutor under Section 79 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor
\nAct, 2017 (Act 959)\u201d in matters such as the current PDS case.<\/p>\n
He
\nsaid, \u201cThe Office of the Special Prosecutor cannot go outside its remit unless
\nSection 79 of Act 959 which deliberately narrowly defines corruption and
\ncorruption-related offences is amended to make it consistent with international
\nconventions on corruption, which Ghana has voluntarily ratified and to which it
\nis a party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initial Announcement<\/p>\n
On
\nTuesday, 30th July 2019 through the Ministry of Finance and the Electricity
\nCompany of Ghana (ECG) Limited, the government announced the suspension of the
\nconcession agreement with the PDS and said it was initiating an enquiry into
\nthe circumstances leading to the non-fulfillment of conditions precedent to the
\nfull operationalization of the agreement by the PDS.<\/p>\n
The
\nissue has since generated heated political debate on whether the entire deal
\nborders on fraud or breaches of the agreement.<\/p>\n
The
\nopposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in particular is even calling for
\nimmediate cancellation of the concession agreement but the government is
\nadamant and wants the team doing the enquiry to submit its report within 30
\ndays for the next line of action to be taken.<\/p>\n
Misplaced Calls<\/p>\n
In
\na response to the numerous \u2018misplaced\u2019 calls for his office to investigate the
\nPDS deal, the Special Prosecutor said in an article that there is public
\nperception that the Office of the Special Prosecutor can investigate and
\nprosecute any criminal offence under the laws of Ghana.<\/p>\n
\u201cGranted
\nthat more than 65% of the population may not be able to read and properly
\nunderstand the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, the problem is compounded
\nwhen persons, civil society and political organizations which ought to know
\nbetter choose to petition or complain to the office on matters which have
\nnothing to do with corruption and corruption-related offences,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n
Cheap Political Points<\/p>\n
He
\nadded that \u201cworse of all, these enlightened persons and organizations appear to
\nbe petitioning the office more for media publicity and political point scoring
\nthan pursuing genuine complaints against adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
He
\nsaid their modus operandi is to write a letter, petition or complaint, have it
\npublished in the media long before submitting or posting the complaint to the
\noffice, adding \u201cthe object of such persons and organizations is not to seek a
\nfair and impartial investigation and prosecution but to do maximum damage to
\nperceived political opponents even before they can be investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described their actions as \u201ca type of mob lynching which no reasonable and impartial law enforcement agency should be used for,\u201d adding \u201cunfortunately, the media aids in such cheap publicity seeking by just publishing the complaint without satisfying itself whether the petition really concerns a corruption and corruption-related offence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martin Amidu Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has said categorically that his office does not have the mandate to investigate the ongoing brouhaha surrounding the Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited concession which has been suspended by the government. He said people who should know better are trying to create the impression that the Office of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[417,456,418,443],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-ghananews","tag-martinamidu","tag-pds","tag-policy"],"yoast_head":"\n