OSP Scares Politicians? – 2 NDC MPs Initiate Move To Scrap It

A bill to scrap the Office of the Special Prosecutor is currently in Parliament, days after the office had suffered huge public backlash over its performance.

Titled the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Repeal) Bill, 2025, it is a Private Member’s Bill being sponsored by two key National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament.

The sponsors, Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, who is the Majority Leader and Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor, the MP for South Dayi and the Majority Chief Whip, sent the document to Parliament on Wednesday, 10 December 2025.

According to the Sponsors, “the object of the Bill is to repeal the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959).”

CLAUSES

The memorandum of the new bill contains seven clauses, with Clause 1 repealing the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) and Clause 2 providing for the transfer of the assets and liabilities of the OSP to the AG.
Clause 3 deals with the transfer of staff to the Office of the AG, and Clause 4 provides for the books, records, case files, electronic data, databases and information, including classified or confidential information in the custody of OSP, to be transferred to the AG.

Clauses 5 to 7 say an investigation, inquiry, prosecution, or any other matter commenced by the OSP will be continued as if commenced by or under the authority of the Attorney-General.

ARGUMENT

The draft bill, which is yet to be considered by the House, proposes that the Attorney-General should regain the powers of the OSP to prosecute corruption and corruption-related offences.

Already, Article 88 of the Constitution vests the power to institute, conduct and discontinue criminal proceedings in the Attorney-General.

This, the document argues, is in order to enhance efficiency, accountability, coordination and prudent use of public resources.

If approved, the Bill is expected to “reduce administrative overheads as a result of the elimination of parallel governance, logistics and support services; provide better value for money through consolidation of prosecutorial resources; improve budgetary control under a single vote head within the justice sector; and ensure a more efficient deployment of skilled prosecutors and
investigators across the national criminal justice system.”

Established in 2017 as a specialised independent body to focus on corruption and corruption-related offences, proponents of the repeal bill argued that operational experience since the establishment has revealed persistent challenges.

They mentioned the duplication of constitutional prosecutorial functions of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Attorney-General, institutional friction and jurisdictional overlap resulting in delays and inefficiencies.
Other challenges, the document mentions, include high operational costs of the Office of the Special Prosecutor with limited demonstrable impact relative to budgetary allocations.

Considering the challenges, they opine that if the AG is strengthened and retooled, it could effectively exercise the national anti-corruption prosecutorial mandate.

PREMATURE

Meanwhile, the President, John Dramani Mahama, has shared a contrary view to the scrapping of the OSP, saying that it is “premature” for such consideration.

Minutes after news broke of the draft bill arriving in Parliament on Wednesday, President Mahama, on the other hand, made the premature remark.

He argued in his address to the National Peace Council that the OSP remained the only anti-corruption body with full prosecutorial independence.

“I think it’s premature to call for the closure of that office. The unique thing about that office is that it is the only anti-corruption agency that has prosecutorial powers to prosecute cases itself without going through the Attorney-General,” he stated.

The President made the case that the public views the AG as part of the government and will be reluctant to prosecute his own, making the OSP very useful.

However, President Mahama urged the OSP to speed up some of these investigations and show that the office is still very relevant.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, last week urged on the OSP to live up to expectations, stressing that the public would not be satisfied that their taxes are expended on an office that yields no results.

On that day, December 4, 2025 the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, insisted that Parliament must reconsider its earlier decision to approve the creation of the OSP.

He argued that after almost eight years since its establishment, the OSP has not demonstrated any meaningful results in tackling corruption.

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