By Priscilla Oye Ofori, GNA
Accra, July 30, GNA – The Government has accepted proposals to establish an Independent Public Ethics Commission and to remove the Attorney-General from Cabinet as part of constitutional and legislative reforms to strengthen accountability and the fight against corruption.
The proposed reforms form part of the Government’s response to the final recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee and are intended to reinforce the independence of the country’s anti-corruption and prosecutorial institutions.
Dr Dominic Ayine, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, announced the Government’s position at a news conference in Accra on Thursday while outlining decisions on the Committee’s report, titled “Transforming Ghana From Electoral Democracy to Developmental Democracy.”
He said the Committee had proposed the establishment of an Independent Anti-Corruption and Ethics Commission with powers to investigate and prosecute corruption and to assume the functions of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Dr Ayine said the Government had accepted the recommendation in principle but concluded that its implementation did not require a constitutional amendment.
Instead, he said, the Government would pursue the reform through the Conduct of Public Officers Bill currently before Parliament.
The Bill, he said, would establish an Independent Public Ethics Commission with authority to investigate and prosecute corruption and conflict-of-interest cases involving public officers and their collaborators in the private sector.
“The Commission’s mandate would be similar to that of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau of Singapore, but, unlike that Bureau, it would be independent of Executive control,” he stated.
On the Office of the Attorney-General, Dr Ayine said the Committee had recommended removing the Attorney-General’s prosecutorial authority in corruption cases and requiring leave of the court before the discontinuance of criminal prosecutions.
He said the Government had not accepted those specific recommendations.
“It is not every day that a Minister stands before the press to announce the splitting of his own office,” he added.
Dr Ayine said the Government had instead opted to address what it considered the underlying concern that “an Attorney General who sits in Cabinet cannot comfortably prosecute members of the government of which he is part.”
To address that concern, he said, the Government would amend Article 88(1) of the Constitution to remove the requirement that the Attorney-General be a Minister of State.
“The Attorney General will remain the principal legal adviser of the Republic and the repository of the prosecutorial authority of the State, but will cease to be a Minister of State,” the Minister explained.
Dr Ayine said the Government also proposed a further amendment to Article 88 to place the Attorney-General on the same terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Supreme Court to strengthen the office’s institutional independence.
He said the proposed reforms sought to preserve the Attorney-General’s constitutional prosecutorial mandate while removing any perception of conflict arising from simultaneous membership of the Executive.
The Government’s decisions form part of its response to the Constitution Review Committee’s report, which contains 206 proposed constitutional amendments, comprising 147 amendments to existing provisions and 59 new provisions.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
By Priscilla Oye Ofori