The Special Prosecutor nominee, Kissi Agyebeng, says as part of his commitment to fighting corruption, he shall religiously be on the "lookout" for government officials in possession of wealth they can not account for.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Mr Agyebeng stated that he expects all the wealth of government officials to come from hard work and lawful sources.
According to the nominee, wealth acquisition is not bad; however, “if the person cannot reasonably explain as matched against his lawful income the amount of money in question, then that aspect, in my opinion, should be criminalised.
"But if you can reasonably explain how you came by that amount of money, then that should be acceptable."
“If I were to place the burden on you, matched against your lawful income, and you cannot...explain the shortfall as to how your lawful income falls short of your wealth, then I will be asking you questions and calling you in.”
“I will be looking out in respect of the sources of that income… whatever the source of the income is; should be lawful,” he said.
To make good on his high-level ambition, Mr Agyebeng said he is “going to make corruption very costly to engage in terms of conflict of interest" as his "conscience, and my learning of the law is going to be my guide,” the nominee assured.
Kissi Agyebeng, however, declared that his role is not to stop corruption in its entirety since that will be humanly impossible.
“I am not naive to assume that I’m coming to stop corruption in Ghana. God himself cannot acclaim to that, but I will make it very costly to engage in,” the 43-year-old lawyer said.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame nominated Mr Agyebeng, a law lecturer and private legal practitioner, to replace Martin Amidu, who resigned from the position in November 2020 under very controversial circumstances.
If approved, Agyebeng, the 43-year-old legal practitioner and managing partner at Cromwell Gray LLP, will become the second person to occupy the Special Prosecutor's office since the Act establishes the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Act 959) came into force in 2017.
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