Ghanaian lawyer Theophilus Donkor says it will be difficult to do away with corruption in the country if there are no specific laws to fight it.
His comments come at the back of the statement by the Special Prosecutor nominee Kissi Agyebeng that unexplained wealth must be criminalized.
Theophilus Donkor reacting to the comment by the SP-nominee noted that our laws in Ghana do not allow corruption to be easily tackled.
On the Happy Morning Show with Raymond Nyamador, he argued: “In our law, we have a basic principle that he who alleges must prove. So, if you say I have amassed wealth unlawfully, you must prove that. But in other jurisdictions, if it comes to unexplained wealth, it is up to the accused to prove where their wealth comes from”.
He added that even when public officials declare their assets before office, the authorities do not check it and that encourages corruption.
“If we don’t have specific laws to fight corruption, we may not succeed in the fight”, he stressed.
The Special Prosecutor-nominee, Kissi Agyebeng, says he is committed to dealing with unexplained wealth accrued by government officials if he’s confirmed.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Mr. Agyebeng said he expects all the wealth of government officials to come from lawful sources.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah 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.
According to Section 13 (8) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017, (Act 959), it is required that the president appoints a person qualified for appointment as Special Prosecutor within six months of the Office becoming vacant.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office is mandated with the authority to investigate and prosecute all suspected corruption and corruption-related offences 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 offences.
After Kissi Agyebeng’s vetting by the Appointments Committee of parliament, the committee unanimously approved the lawyer.