Political transition, challenges for anti-corruption agencies
The recent disquiet from some sections of the public about the operations of anti-corruption agencies, namely the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), following the change of government in January 2025, is quite interesting.
It raises questions about whether the above agencies are exercising their mandate in the public interest to pursue suspected corrupt officials or they are engaged in vengeful or retributive justice.
History
Successive governments in Ghana have responded to the scourge of corruption by the creation of several anti-corruption agencies.
The most relevant are the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), EOCO, the Financial Intelligence Centre (F.I.C) and lastly Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Before the creation of the OSP, EOCO was the main pivot in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
The OSP was established by Act 959 in 2017 to take on distinctively corruption-related offences.
The precursors of EOCO were the Serious Fraud Office (S.F.O) and the erstwhile National Investigation Committee (N.I.C).
The N.I.C was created by PNDC (law 2) of 1982 as a ‘special’ anti-corruption institution to investigate corruption and serious offences in the aftermath of the so-called 31st December revolution of 1981.
The operations of the N.I.C. were often arbitrary and led to wrongful confiscation of assets and incarceration of innocent people.
The sordid record of the N.I.C. may probably be the ghost haunting the image of successor anti-graft agencies.
The N.I.C transitioned to become the Serious Fraud Office (S.F.O) upon coming into force of the 1992 Constitution by Act 446 of 1993 which also repealed the N.I.C.
There was intense debate about the intention behind the creation of the S.F.O.
Opposition to it was based on the suspicion that it could be used to mete out arbitrary justice to political adversaries as was experienced in some cases during the era of the N.I.C. Ultimately, the creation of the S.F.O was approved because it was deemed necessary for the evolution of a specialised agency to combat corruption and related crimes, as was the trend globally.
The S.F.O. became operational in 1997, after the Act was passed in 1993.
It is interesting to note that the first high-profile cases that were successfully investigated and prosecuted by the S.F.O. occurred under the NPP government of President J.A Kufuor.
Messers Kwame Peprah, Victor Selormey, Ibrahim Adam, all ministers the state, and Dr George Sipa Yankey, a legal advisor in the erstwhile NDC Government of President J.J Rawlings, were jailed for causing financial loss to the state based on the investigations of the S.F.O
Creation
EOCO was created by Act 804 in 2010 to succeed the S.F.O, with an expanded mandate to keep pace with emergent criminal offences such as prohibited cyber activity, money laundering, human trafficking, and more importantly to recover the proceeds of crime.
Although EOCO has matured to become a fully fledged law enforcement agency.
It has suffered from reactionary and parochial partisan interests which escalates whenever there is a change of government.
The OSP was created by Act 959 in 2017 to complement the operations of existing anti-corruption agencies.
Its performance has not been spared some of the criticisms that were targeted at EOCO in its nascent years.
Howbeit, the office has been in operation since 2018.
From the foregoing, it is safe to conclude that the prevalence of corruption in the country cannot all be attributed to the absence of institutions to fight it but rather the will and commitment to do so.
Reforming attitudes
The fight against corruption can only be won if the citizenry begin to appreciate the difference between tainted and honestly acquired wealth.
The promiscuous celebration of wealth regardless of its source must be exorcised from our body politic.
Corruption will only recede when we collectively turn the corrupt in society into outcasts and expose them as ordinary criminals who slice into the veins and arteries of the nation’s economy and bleed it to death and also pursue them relentlessly for accountability no matter which political party colours they wear.
The anti-corruption agencies must also optimise their operations by insulating themselves from the slightest hint of vengeful or retributive justice.
Finally, if they succeed in securing more convictions and follow-up confiscation of illicit assets, the agencies may well smother any lingering doubts about their functionality.
The writer is a retired public servant.
E-mail: sirwalteramewu@gmail.com
