Private legal practitioner Ace Ankomah has argued that Ghana’s Parliament has consistently shown discomfort with independent state institutions, especially when those bodies begin to fully exercise their constitutional mandates.
His remarks come amid renewed calls from Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga and some MPs for the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to be scrapped, with the suggestion that the Attorney-General should assume responsibility for all corruption investigations and prosecutions.
Mr Ayariga, speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, December 3, questioned the rationale behind significant budget allocations to the OSP when, in his view, the Attorney-General’s Department remains under-resourced.
Offering his take on the development during an interview on Channel One TV on Monday, December 8, Mr Ankomah said the tension surrounding the OSP is reflective of a deeper and longstanding pattern.
According to him, Parliament has often resisted institutions that operate independently of its influence.
“Parliament has a great aversion to all the independent institutions, even those set up by the Constitution,” he asserted, pointing to the Auditor-General’s Office as a key example.
He recalled that it took a legal battle to compel the Auditor-General to use its constitutional powers of disallowance and surcharge—tools that were left dormant for years after the 1992 Constitution came into force.
Once activated, he noted, those powers enabled the Auditor-General to recover roughly GH¢65 million for the state, citing World Bank figures.
Mr Ankomah further referenced subsequent developments that, in his view, undermined the Auditor-General’s independence, including parliamentary manoeuvres aimed at reversing Supreme Court rulings that strengthened the office.
He also highlighted the controversial early retirement of former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo, which he suggested weakened the institution’s effectiveness.
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