Parliament, through unanimous vote, has approved the 2019 Budget Estimates of GH¢180,160,231 for the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), for the execution of its planned programmes.
The approved 2019 Budget Estimates cover capital expenditure, employees compensation, and goods and services of the Office.
Presenting a report on the 2019 Budget Estimates at the Plenary, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Ben Abdallah Banda, stated that GH¢88,013,859 has been allocated to the OSP, to meet its goods and services expenses.
Mr. Banda indicated that an amount of GH¢58,675,906 has been made under capital expenditure vote of the OSP for the acquisition of a purpose-built office facility, outfitting and procurement of special general purpose vehicles for the year 2019.
Mr. Banda continued that under capital expenditure, office furniture, computers, modern security and communication equipment, among others would be procured for the year 2019.
On the compensation of employees for 2019, Mr. Banda, pointed out that provisions have been made in the 2019 Budget of the OSP to recruit 249 new crop of staff as part of the measures to fully operationalise the Office.
He however stated that his Committee discovered that the Ministry of Finance has provided for a staff ceiling of 12.
He further added that when the Schedule Officers of the Ministry of Finance were queried, they indicated that, the ceiling was an obvious error because the number was inconsistent with the compensation of GH¢33,470,466 allocated to the OSP.
Mr. Banda informed the House that the OSP disclosed to the Committee that the Office had written to the Ministry of Finance to get the error rectified.
2019 outlook on management and administration of the Office
The Office of the Special Prosecutor in 2019, intends to facilitate the implementation of its programmes by providing the appropriate administrative support services to all other budget programmes.
The Office again, will effectively and efficiently manage financial resources and timely annual reporting as contained in the new Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
The Office intends to facilitate training and development, recruitment and promotions, leave policy, welfare, discipline and job description in 2019.
It is expected that the OSP will develop policies for the establishment and operation of Planning and Budgetary Units in all implementing agencies in the sector.
The Office will again provide logistical support such as transport, estates, cleaning services, security, maintenance, stores management and internal human resource management.
2019 outlook on Anti-Corruption Management
The OSP in 2019, intends to investigate cases of alleged corruption and corruption related offences under the Criminal Offences Act,1960 (Act 29) and other relevant law involving public officers, politically exposed persons and persons in the private sector involved in the commission of the offence.
The Office in 2019, is expected to receive and act on referrals of investigations of alleged corruption and corruption related offences by Parliament, the Auditor-General’s Office, the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and other public institutions.
The OSP in 2019, projects to file 40 cases, investigate 15 of the cases and secure at least 5 convictions.
The Office again, has estimated to achieve 60 percent recovery rate out of the received cases on recovery and further secure 2 confiscations of assets procured with proceeds from corruption and corruption related offences.
2018 expenditure performance
The Ministry of Finance, in the second quarter of this year, released an amount of GH¢1,000,000 to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, to fund its activities.
As at July, 2018, an amount of GH¢154,261.84 had been expended by the Office.
The Ministry of Finance again, made available to the OSP an amount of GH¢2,791,214 upon a request by the Office to meet critical capital expenses.
The amount however, could not be assessed because the OSP had not yet been set up on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS ) platform and its Entity Tender Committee had also not been put in place.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
