President John Mahama cannot escape my invitation to act even handedly by setting up an investigation into the payroll fraud and massive economic crime scene at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) because of the anxiety my article of yesterday, 25 February 2025, on the NEIP and the OSP has generated amongst employees of the OSP.
The OSP employees who contacted me are ready, able, and willing to speak at an impartial investigation that they were never vetted by the Ghana Police Administration, and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB). The OSP employees assumed that the Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng’s, unlawful polygraphing them could pass for vetting under Regulation 7 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Regulations, 2018 (LI 2373) for purposes of their probation and confirmation of appointment under Regulation 12 thereof.
The first OSP employee to contact me after I had explained the processes of vetting employees of the OSP, stated that: “I am absolutely shocked to my boots by your latest revelation!” When I asked my interlocutor: “Which of the revelations? If the police and NIB vetted, you would have known. The police take your finger prints etc to ensure you are not an ex-convict, and NIB would have done the deep vetting of all schools and certificates on your CV,” the answer was: “I mean the colossal breaches!.” This employee admitted he was polygraphed, not vetted.
The letter and the spirit animating the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) which established the OSP was and is to ensure that the flagship anti-corruption agency that I operationalized as the founding Special Prosecutor employed only men and women of the highest moral character and integrity without whom previous endeavours to fight corruption failed. This explains how come I borrowed Regulation 7 and 12 of LI 2373 from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) Regulations in the draft of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Regulations I submitted to Attorney-General Gloria Akuffo for enactment into law. I still have copies of all the drafts on LI 2373 and LI 2374 to show the efforts I made to ensure that only people of high moral character and integrity were employed at the OSP.
William Kissi Agyebeng, when he was nominated the Special Prosecutor, was requested by Parliament to submit himself to the Ghana Police Administration and the then BNI for vetting before appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for consideration for approval by Parliament. He was finger printed and other biodata taken from him by the Police to rule out any previous convictions and suspected crimes committed by him. The NIB made a thorough background check on him from his home town, the schools, and universities he attended, and made other discreet checks on him before reporting confidentially to Parliament. These same checks were undertaken on me by the two institutions on each of the occasions that I was nominated for appointment under the 1992 Constitution.
The two main security and intelligence institutions for vetting in Ghana are the Ghana Police and the BNI, now NIB. Parliament could have bought a huge polygraph machine and placed it in the Appointments Committee room to test our truthfulness if that was the meaning of vetting under Ghana law. Polygraphing citizens of Ghana by public institutions is illegal in Ghana and cannot be a substitute for vetting by the Ghana Police and the NIB.
I remember that in February 2018 a nephew of mine called from Kadema, my parents home village, to say that some people came to the homestead to ask questions about me saying they were from Sandema. It turned out that it was the BNI from Sandema acting on instructions from Accra. I had been vetted several times for Ministerial appointment since 1993, yet there was the BNI going to Kadema where nobody knew me well instead of to Bawku where I grew up and had my father’s immediate family home. But that shows how serious they take their job to keep public institutions safe from ex-convicts and bad characters.
When I founded and operationalized the OSP as the Special Prosecutor, I had to use seconded staff from other public institutions in order not to contravene the 1992 Constitution on recruitment and to be within Section 21 of Act 959. Nonetheless, as seconded employees, I requested the BNI to vet them, which was thoroughly done. Any fresh employee who has not been vetted for recruitment, in order to pass his probation, and confirmation of his appointment can only be placed on the OSP payroll fraudulently and through corruption involving the OSP, the Accountant-General’s Department, and the Auditor-General’s Department.
The Ghana Police Service by letter with reference number BF.330/344/02A/36 dated 17 April 2024 in response to my Right to Information (RTI) request on vetting of OSP staff stated that: “…… the Police Administration has not received such request from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, please.” The Minister for National Security in letter with reference number NSCS 932 VOL 4/1835 dated 7 June 2024 also responded to my RTI request stating that: “The National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) has no information on your request.” The Accountant-General’s Department, which has a staff at the OSP as the Chief Accountant, and the Auditor- General who audits the OSP year after year refused to report the payroll fraud because of corruption in tandem with the OSP.
President Mahama, recover the loot involved in the OSP payroll fraud through an impartial investigation in accordance with your promise to recover all loots before you deal with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) employees, and the after 7 December 2024 Akufo-Addo copycat midnight appointees.
The easiest way for the President to shut me up from repeating the suspected forgery, payroll fraud, and other crimes constituting the economic crime scene at the OSP supervised by William Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, is to conduct an impartial investigation into the OSP’s unlawful appointments and payroll fraud to prove to Ghanaians that I am wrong in my presentations on the matter.
President Mahama, if you fail to deal with the unconstitutional and unlawful appointments and payroll fraud at the OSP your rhetoric to fight corruption would have been dead on arrival in your first month of assuming office. The fact that William Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor went away without leave (AWOL) from 7 August 2024 for four months until your assumption of office on account of the Airbus-SE -Ghana corruption scandal investigation report should not be an emotional reason for refusing to crack the whip on the fraud and other economic crimes at the OSP.
Mr. President, be even handed and crack the whip to recover all loot from the OSP and earn the nation’s respect this time round in your second tenure. Vindicate the electorate’s trust in you and anchor the NDC on solid grounds for 7 December 2028. Mr. President, I will stand by you all the way in any genuine endeavour by you to fight corruption in Ghana. We can only achieve this by, Putting Ghana First!
Martin A. B. K. Amidu 26 February 2025
