According to Special Prosecutor Mr. Kissi Agyebeng, his office's responsibility extends beyond only upholding the rights of public servants.
According to him, the Office of the Special Prosecutor's (OSP) authority also covers private individuals and politically exposed people.
He clarified that in this context, politically exposed individuals are those who have been given prominent public positions in Ghana or in a foreign nation or an international organization, such as senior political party officials, government officials, judicial officials, military officials, or someone who is or has previously been an executive of a state-owned company in a foreign nation, a senior political party official in a foreign nation, or a member of their close family.
Through its notice to declare property and income and seizure of tainted property regime, the OSP has the power to inquire into each person's lifestyle.
He made the statement last Friday at the 37th International Conference and Meeting of the International Criminal Court (ICC) FraudNet in Accra. "This is not your typical declaration of assets process whereby public officials are required to declare their assets upon assumption of office and upon exiting in aid of combating corruption," he said.
"State Capture and Corruption" was the focus.
"The OSP system is far more comprehensive," he continued. It aims to stop illegitimate and mysterious riches among public authorities and private individuals. In this case, a person's stated wealth and legal income are compared.
"The flyover is subject to forfeiture to the state if the former exceeds the latter, that is, when a person's legitimate income cannot adequately account for the purchase of his property." On the other hand, the state is immediately entitled to any undeclared property.
Here are his full words:
Corruption, fraud, and state capture are pervasive problems in our region of the world. If we do nothing, this disease will stay with us. They impede our development and waste our resources in all of their forms. Their crippling effects are felt in full force all around us, and they are ingrained in our culture much like rituals. Ghana has criteria for allocating resources based on merit or other justifications that are evading us in terms of opportunity and resources.
The currency is the abuse of authority for personal gain. Never before has it been so appealing to misrepresent events and facts in order to achieve financial advantage. The public decision-making process and state institutions, however, seem to be in a race for excessive control. Existing rules and the legal system are being eroded for personal advantage, and state institutions are being neutralized as tools of the people.
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