{"id":359532,"date":"2017-10-06T14:27:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=359532"},"modified":"2017-10-06T14:27:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:27:42","slug":"mps-poised-to-debate-special-prosecutor-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/mps-poised-to-debate-special-prosecutor-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs poised to debate Special prosecutor Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The report of Parliament\u2019s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, on the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, is expected to be laid later today [Friday].<\/p>\n<p>This follows the Committee\u2019s conclusion of consultations with various stakeholders concerned with the Bill.<\/p>\n<p>The objective of the Bill is to establish a specialized agency to investigate specific cases of corruption involving public officers, as well as individuals in the private sector implicated in corrupt acts.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;nZwqTXnQokx3VETsHUGIzcxS7dcf6eQH&#8221;]Ahead of the presentation of the report to the House, Vice Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Alexander Abban, told <strong>Citi News<\/strong> that a serious debate awaits the laying of the bill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe as a committee advertised for the submission of memoranda by CSOs, individuals, and anybody who cared to submit one. There are people who even think that the whole exercise becomes unconstitutional\u00a0with regards to the provisions in article 88 of the constitution, others think otherwise. So the lines are drawn for heavy debate on this matter on the floor of Parliament,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Raymond Atuguba, argues that Parliament does not have the powers to consider the Special Prosecutor Bill.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a forum organized by the Centre for Social Democracy at the University of Ghana Political Science Department, Dr. Atuguba said Parliament is constitutionally constrained from considering the Bill and approving it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsent an amendment of the constitution, there is no iota of prosecutorial powers left anywhere to be given to anybody. So Parliament itself is constitutionally constrained from giving prosecutorial powers to an independent special prosecutor because Parliament cannot do that. Those powers have already been vested in one person [Attorney General],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Special prosecutor office<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Office of the Special Prosecutor is to enable the government deal with issues of corruption, especially among state officials.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Bill, an independent prosecutor will head the office and prosecute corruption offenses by state officers.<\/p>\n<p>It was one of the major promises made by President Akufo-Addo as part of his plans to deal with corruption in government.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill which was laid before Parliament was\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #666699;\"><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/26\/govt-withdraws-special-prosecutor-bill-from-parliament\/\">later withdrawn<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>after the Minority challenged the procedure for laying it, claiming it was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill was subsequently <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/09\/09\/special-prosecutor-bill-to-be-ready-by-october-4-cttee\/\"><strong>re-laid<\/strong><\/a><\/span> before the House.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Duke Mensah Opoku\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The report of Parliament\u2019s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, on the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, is expected to be laid later today [Friday]. This follows the Committee\u2019s conclusion of consultations with various stakeholders concerned with the Bill. The objective of the Bill is to establish a specialized agency to investigate specific cases [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58,11],"tags":[3,532,533,534],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MPs poised to debate Special prosecutor Bill - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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