The Finance Minister has indicated that the government will recruit 251 workers for the Office of the Special Prosecutor to assist in the fight against corruption.

This is indicated in the 2022 budget statement that was presented to Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

The recruitment of the 251 personnel is among five activities that Ken Ofori-Atta said the Office of the Special Prosecutor will focus on in 2022.

“In 2022, the OSP will focus on: the completion of the retrofitting of the new office; recruitment of 251 staff; training and resourcing of staff; investigation and prosecution of cases; asset recovery and management; and prevention of corruption through public education and stakeholder engagements,” the Finance Minister said.

Accordingly, a total of GHC170,504,000 will be allocated to the Office to undertake its mandate in 2022.  

The amount is higher than the GHC124,103,085 that was budgeted for the office in 2021.

This is not the first time the government has planned to recruit more personnel for the Office.

In the 2021 budget statement, the government announced that it will recruit “249 staff to support the establishment of the Secretariat and all the divisions of the office for effective and efficient operation.”

However, that did not happen as the Special Prosecutor, in August this year, disclosed that the office was understaffed.

The law for the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor was passed in Parliament in November, 2017.

The office was set up by the government to investigate and prosecute corruption-related cases.

However, not many successes have been chalked by the OSP since its establishment.

The only two cases that were being pursued by the former occupant of the Office, Martin Amidu, have been withdrawn for lack of evidence.

The current Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, had mentioned publicly that he inherited only nine employees.

The nine workers, according to Kissi Agyebeng include drivers, cleaners, a prosecutor on secondment from the AG's office and an investigator on secondment from the Ghana Police Service.