I can’t stop corruption – Special Prosecutor nominee

The Special Prosecutor nominee, Kissi Agyebeng, has indicated that he cannot stop corruption in Ghana but will instead make the practice unattractive for individuals with an appetite for corruption.

My strategy is that Honourable Chair, I’m not naïve to assume that I’m coming to stop corruption. There is no way I can stop corruption. God himself will not even acclaim to that. But I’m going to make corruption very costly; very, very costly to engage in, in terms of conflict of interest,” he said.

Agyebeng made the remarks when he appeared before the Parliamentary Vetting Committee on Thursday, July 22, 2021.

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Answering a question from the Tamale South Member of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, who sought to find out the strategies that will be used to deal particularly with conflict of interest, Mr Agyebeng said corruption is something that God himself cannot claim to stop.

However, for him, the best antidote to deal with the practice was to make it a risky venture for people who engage in the act.

According to the Special Prosecutor nominee, when given the nod, he will institute a new policy called “Pressure for Progress”, under which“there will be a systemic review of all public agencies; public sector institutions and the development of integrity plan.”

Agyebeng explained that with the Pressure for Progress policy, the SP office should be able to establish its own corruption perception index whereby state agencies can be ranked based on certain corruption indicators.

He said: “Why can’t we have our own corruption perception index, for instance? why can’t I rank public sector agencies against each other? And at the end of the year, publicise the results as to which institution is performing well and which institution is not performing well. In that point, if a head of an institution… and persistently your institution is drawing the short straw in terms of perception of corruption from the point of view of experts, from the point of view of the business people, you will sit up.”