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OSP Is Ghana’s Strongest Anti-Corruption Weapon – Kissi Agyebeng
Special Prosecutor Mr Kissi Agyebeng has declared that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) remains the country’s most credible and potent institutional response to corruption — a game-changer in the nation’s decades-long battle against graft.
Delivering a landmark address at the West Africa Regional Anti-Corruption Policy Dialogue in Accra, Mr Agyebeng reaffirmed the independence and prosecutorial power of the OSP, describing it as a bold departure from the limitations of earlier accountability institutions.
“The OSP is politically neutral, retains total control over its investigations and prosecutions, and has jurisdiction over both public and private actors,” he said.
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Mr Agyebeng contrasted the OSP with institutions like the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), calling them “well-intentioned but structurally constrained”.
“CHRAJ could only investigate but not prosecute. EOCO’s reliance on the Attorney-General made it ineffective in pursuing politically exposed persons,” he noted.
He stressed that the OSP was born out of both domestic advocacy and Ghana’s commitments under international treaties, such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
Operationalised in 2021, the OSP is tasked with investigating and prosecuting corruption-related offences independently — a mandate Mr Agyebeng said is both powerful and vulnerable.
“No anti-corruption system is failsafe,” he admitted. “But it must be reasonably robust to withstand sabotage, legal bottlenecks, and political interference.”
Placing the fight against corruption in historical context, the special prosecutor traced Ghana’s corruption-related upheavals from colonial times to the present, pointing out that political instability has often been linked to popular frustration over corruption.
He referenced the colonial resistance to land grabs in 1898, military takeovers between 1966 and 1981, and historic commissions like the Cowgill (1959) and Anin (1970) commissions, which all identified deep-rooted corruption in governance systems.
“Each surge in corruption has been met with varied responses—from coup d’états to commissions of inquiry,” he said.
“Yet we quickly forgot the findings and never implemented the recommendations.”
Military regimes repeatedly invoked anti-corruption as justification for toppling civilian governments. “General Ankrah accused the Nkrumah regime of monumental corruption; Rawlings declared that civilian administrations were milking the country dry,” he recalled.
While expressing optimism about the OSP’s future, Mr Agyebeng called for constitutional clarity and stronger legal backing to insulate the office from interference and institutional inertia.
“Institutional courage and constitutional clarity are necessary for the OSP to live up to its promise,” he said.
Despite the setbacks, he ended on a note of resilience and hope.
“Our anti-corruption drive has been pockmarked by ups, downs, and sometimes downright downs—but we keep humming a more melodious version of that old Negro spiritual—to signify hopefulness.”
Read Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng’s address in full below:
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