Advertise Special Prosecutor's Position For Interested Persons To Apply – Emile Short

Former Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Justice Emile Short has proposed that government advertise the position of a special prosecutor's office for interested persons to apply.

This, he says will let whoever occupies the office perform its duties transparently.

Speaking on Okay FM's Ade Akye Abia's programme Justice Emile Short opined that the appointment of a special prosecutor by government will let the public and members of the opposition party lose confidence and trust in him.

"The office of a special prosecutor should be opened enough for anyone who has integrity, bold and competent enough to apply for a selection process to begin for a qualified person to be selected for the office. If we really want to fight corruption as a country, this is what the government should do in the selection of a special prosecutor” he noted.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 is to establish the Office of a Special Prosecutor as a specialised agency to investigate specific cases of corruption involving public officers and politically exposed persons in the performance of their functions as well as persons in the private sector implicated in the commission of corruption.

 
Special Prosecutor Bill on hold

 
The Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has recommended that the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 be taken through the usual legal legislative procedure.

It involves stakeholder consultation, preparation and presentation of a report to Parliament, second reading, amendments to provisions in the Bill, third reading before passing it.

If the committee had stated that the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 was of urgent nature as suggested by the Deputy Attorney and Minister of Justice, Mr Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, then it could be passed in a day.

The Bill was laid in Parliament last Tuesday by Mr Kpemka on behalf of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and following the debate as to whether the Bill should be treated under a certificate of urgency, the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye directed the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to determine the urgency or otherwise of the Bill.

The Special Prosecutor would prosecute the offences on the authority of the Attorney General.