The promise of a new beginning and reset of the politics of Ghana in the service of every citizen by President John Dramani Mahama must not become a promise of approbating everything that favours the government’s partisan political interest and reprobating those which do not.
A looter is a looter no matter his political affiliation if the reset of Ghana must be taken to be an even handed regeneration of our nation to meet the values of equality and non-discrimination of good governance underpinning the 1992 Constitution.
It will be the height of grand deception and patent propaganda to suspend all the employees of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) in order “to adhere strictly to due process in regularizing staff employment to prevent further legal complications” when the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) which was established as the flagship institution to fight corruption and corruption-related offences is staffed with employees who hold no appointment letters in accordance with Article 195 (1) or (2) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 21 (1) and (2) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959). The so-called existing OSP staff have also never been vetted under Regulation 7 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2018 (LI 2373, let alone to legally pass their probation and be confirmed under Regulation 12 thereof as employees for and to remain on the OSP payroll.
Apart from the Special Prosecutor and the Deputy Special Prosecutor, the senior staff of the rank of category “B” officers (who are the Directors of Divisions) do not hold their appointments from the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Board of the OSP giving in consultation with the Public Services Commission (PSC). The appointment of this category of staff which were done long before there was a Board are not capable of being ratified by the Board later as criminally claimed by William Kissi Agyebeng. President Mahama, call for their appointment letters in fairness.
The OSP Board under Linda Ofori-Kwafo had no power to ratify a criminal and unconstitutional action committed by the Special Prosecutor long before the President reconstituted the Board. William Kissi Agyebeng cannot post facto claim to have committed those criminal and unconstitutional acts under any doctrine of necessity. He was obliged to use seconded staff pending his ability to comply with the law on recruitments.
The President also never delegated any of his appointing functions in respect of Category “C” officers by direction in writing to the OSP Board or to a committee of the Board, or to any member of that Board or to any public officer such as the Special Prosecutor by 7 January 2025 when the NPP government exited office. All appointment letters in the OSP employing all the staff were signed by Kissi Agyebeng the Special Prosecutor and not copied even to the Presidency or the PSC or to any other public institution including the Auditor-General. President Mahama can now easily establish the fact that President Akufo-Addo never delegated his appointing power in writing to the OSP Board before he left office on 6 January 2025 from records in the Presidency and the PSC.
The John Mahama government cannot be blamed for ensuring that all the employees of the NEIP under suspension were regularly employed in accordance with the 1992 Constitution and laws governing it. I will support the President’s endeavour to prevent and recover all loots hundred percent with all my might and with all my soul when Operation Prevent All Loot (OPAL) and Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) are established pursuant to law. The public purse that was looted as a results of the irregularities and legal complications committed by all previous governments under the 1992 Constitution must then be prevented and recovered, as the case might be, in accordance with President Mahama’s promise on OPAL and ORAL respectively.
The Attorney-General, Dominic Akurigitinga Ayine (Dr. Suspected Missingdocket) has the authority under Article 88 of the Constitution to request his former pupil, friend, and crony the Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng, of the OSP under Act 959 to conduct a payroll audit and recover all loot in the NEIP as the OSP claims to have been doing in respect of the Ghana Education Service (GES) under the Akufo-Addo regime.
But it will be a fundamental inequity and discrimination abhorred by the Constitution and laws of Ghana to use an institution like OSP which is itself “an economic crime scene” of breaches of Article 195 of the Constitution, Section 21 of Act 959, and Regulations 7 and 12 of LI 2373 to conduct any investigations at the NEIP or prosecutions at the GES without any investigations having been conducted by President Mahama’s administration into the “economic crime scene” at the OSP itself first.
The added accusation of inequity and discrimination for President Mahama will be the involvement of an OSP in OPAL and ORAL after the Special Prosecutor fled from Ghana on 7 August 2024, (with orders to the OSP to release the Airbus SE-Ghana corruption report on 8 August 2024) and stayed away from Ghana for four months to return to Ghana a few days to the assumption of office by President Mahama on 7 January 2025. In the interregnum of his being on AWOL (away without leave) he involved himself in the criminal deception of Ghanaians by running the OSP through courier services from abroad to the charging of senior officials of the OSP.
The President’s reset election agenda to prevent and recover all loot by the acting CEO of the NEIP in suspending all its staff for purposes of “regularizing staff employment to prevent further legal complications” may be laudable, but it will be discriminatory for the employees of the NEIP that the flagship anti-corruption OSP continues causing financial loss to the state with a payroll which criminally violates Article 195 of the 1992 Constitution, Section 21 of Act 959, and Regulations 7 and 12 of LI 2373.
I do not buy the argument that the Accountant General’s Department and the Auditor General’s Department would have uncovered all loot or prevented same as a reason for not conducting a thorough investigation into the NEIP, the copycat after 7 December 2016 “midnight” appointments by the Akufo-Addo government after 7 December 2024, or the “economic crime scene” of payroll fraud led by the Special Prosecutor at the OSP.
The President was elected with a landslide victory to prevent looting and to recover all loots committed by past governments and his own government. The electorate did not elect the President to fulfil his promise to fight all looting and recover all loots discriminatorily based on party partisan grounds as his newly appointed officers are doing in his name.
The fact that the OSP was used as a public institution to commit the crime of forging an investigation outcome in the Airbus SE-Ghana corruption report favouring the Mahama family and their friends, with the Special Prosecutor going into self-exile and returning only when the OSP thinks President Mahama will condone the payroll fraud and other crimes committed under the colour of the OSP must not be an excuse for not setting up an impartial investigation into the functioning of the OSP. What is good for the NEIP employees is good for the OSP employees as well. If you live in a glass house don’t throw stones, is an old saying, Mr. President.
Let the world know that I engaged the PSC on the criminal and unconstitutional appointments undertaken by the Special Prosecutor long before the OSP Board was reconstituted. The PSC confirmed to me that the PSC was not consulted in the appointment of Category ‘A” and “B” officers of the OSP. The PSC also confirmed that they never received any letter in writing
from the President delegating his appointment function at the OSP to the Board or anybody to appoint Category “C” officers. This implied that any invitation to the PSC from the OSP Board to partake in interviews of “Category “C” officers was without authority under Article 195 (2) of the Constitution and Section 21 (2) of Act 959 despite any participation by the PSC in category “C” interviews for appointment. For the avoidance of doubt, I received letter number AB 537/1030/01 dated 2nd February 2024 from the PSC stating, inter alia, that:
‘The PSC would like to indicate that it was not involved in the appointment of Category “A” and “B” officers but it was involved in the appointment of Category “C” officers at the OSP.’
The Ghana Police Service by letter with reference number BF.330/344/02A/36 dated 17 April 2024 in response to my Right to Information (RTI) request on whether it had upon the request of the OSP vetted Category “B” officers with the rank of Directors of division at the OSP and
about 206 Category “C” employees of the OSP in fulfilment of Regulation 7 of L. I. 2373 stated that: “…. the Police Administration has not received such request from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, please.”
The Minister for National Security in letter with reference number NSCS 932 VOL 4/1835 dated 7 June 2024 also responded to my RTI request addressed to the Director-General National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) stating that: “The National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) has no information on your request.”
The Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng instead used the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attached to the American Embassy in Ghana to unlawfully and cohesively polygraph the staff. The Special Prosecutor’s friend and crony from his law firm of Cromwell Gray LLP, Sammy Darko, the unlawfully appointed divisional director of the OSP,
confirmed the use of polygraph to unlawfully invade the privacy of the staff of the OSP on KeyPoint with Alfred Ocansey on TV 3 on 15 February 2025.
The foregoing means that from 9 August 2021, (when Kissi Agyebeng assumed office at the OSP with an initial cortege of four already recruited staff made up of two secretaries, a facilities manager, and a businessman baron mentor as his Director of Operations he termed volunteer workers), to 7 June 2024 no employee of the OSP had met the vetting, probation, and confirmation of appointment requirements under Regulations 7 and 12 of L. I. 2373 to be on the payroll of the OSP under Act 959. It stands to reason that after unconstitutionally and unlawfully appointing the staff, Kissi Agyebeng did not bother to submit them for vetting to ensure they were fit to serve in the OSP, to undergo probation, and to legally confirm their appointments and, therefore, to be on the OSP payroll.
Only Kissi Agyebeng knows the answer to how the staff of the OSP passed their crucial integrity test, probation, and confirmation of appointment under Regulations 7 and 12 of L.I 2373 for purposes of being on the OSP payroll without it being fraudulent. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, President Mahama. I have the facts and evidence and can adduce them.
President Mahama, deal with the payroll “economic crime scene” at the OSP which made a favourable decision for your benefit first and establish your credibility to deal with the irregularities at the NEIP, and the annulment of all appointments made by former President Akufo-Addo after 7 December 2024.
The beginning of President Mahama’s tenure is the time for him to reassure Ghanaians of the honour, and integrity with which he took the constitutional oath as the President of Ghana along side his pre-election promises not to pick and chose to criminalize political adversaries as looters whilst condoning commissions or omissions of similar crimes by looters from his family, friends, and cronies of the same political persuasion or political party when they loot the public purse. Crack the whip Mr. President and show your even handedness to all citizens as President John Dramani Mahama. Ababio, this time round, Put Ghana First as promised!.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
24 February 2025.
