The Executive Director of Transparency International, Mary Addah, has cautioned against any hasty actions that could potentially undermine Ghana’s anti-corruption efforts, following developments indicating that the Attorney-General’s Department may take over cases currently being prosecuted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM's Top Story on Thursday, urging the Attorney-General to avoid steps that may curtail the work of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

Madam Addah warned that Ghana must be careful not to take decisions that could weaken anti-corruption institutions, stressing that such actions risk undermining public confidence.

“We shouldn’t be rushing to put in place some restrictions to curtail the fight against corruption, because that is the impression CSOs have, that we see some institutions as threats and we are going to take away their powers to make them toothless, so that they are not able to do anything or prosecute any agenda,” she said.

This, according to her, defeats the purpose for which the OSP office was created.

Addah further explained that the creation of the OSP was not accidental but rooted in long-standing concerns about the effectiveness of the Attorney-General’s Department in handling regime-related accountability and corruption prosecutions.

She added that the establishment of the OSP was a deliberate response by the state, supported through political consensus and reflected in presidential commitments at the time.

According to her, that rationale still holds today, and any attempt to weaken the office risks reversing progress made in the last eight years.

“That reason has not been defeated. The implications on the fight against corruption, as I mentioned this morning, is that we are taking ourselves backwards— in fact, about eight years backwards,” she warned.

Madam Addah stressed that the OSP was created specifically to investigate and prosecute corruption-related offences, including procurement breaches and illicit asset accumulation, and argued that these challenges persist.