Parliament has endorsed Mr. Kissi Agyebeng for the position of Special Prosecutor,
This follows Appointments Committee of Parliament’s unanimous recommendation of his candidature, a week ago.
Mr Agyebeng will carry out the extraordinary responsibility of independently fighting corruption and will have full authority to initiate investigations into all suspected corruption-related offences of all persons in public service if approved by Parliament.
As part of its mandate, the Special Prosecutor has the authority to investigate and prosecute all suspected corruption and corruption-related offences as pertaining to public officers, politically exposed persons, and persons in the private sector alleged to have been involved in corruption and corruption-related offences.
He replaces Martin Amidu, who resigned from the position in November 2020.
In accordance with section 13 (of the Office of Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), the president through the Attorney General was to appoint a replacement within six (6) months of the position becoming vacant.
To this end, the Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame, on 16th April 2021, nominated Mr. Kissi Agyebeng, under section 13(3) of Act 959, to the President for consideration as the second occupant of the Office of Special Prosecutor.
Mr Agyebeng had, at the vetting, described the Office of the Special Prosecutor as unique, as compared to all the other law enforcement agencies in respect of its mandate.
That, he said, was: “because no other institution has been carefully designed and thought-out to fight corruption specifically as Act 959 has done.
“…In respect of this, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) is the gold standard under the UN Convention against corruption and the AU Convention on the prevention and combatting of corruption.”
“The international community, including Ghana, ratified these conventions in the early 2,000s, I think 2002 if I’m not wrong, that every jurisdiction requires such a specialized agency, it should be made independent with a specialized trained staff to focus on the fight against corruption.”
BACKGROUND:
Mr Agyebeng has been a law lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana Legon since October 2006, teaching and researching Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Corporate Law, and Legal Research and Writing. Called to the Bar in October 2003 and also engaged in private law practice, Mr. Kissi
The 43-years-old holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Ghana and Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Dalhouse University and Cornell Law School.
He was born on July 02, 1978, and awarded the Bentsi-Enchill prize for Best Graduating Student of the University of Ghana School of Law in 2001 and E.N. Sowah Memorial prize for best student in Family Law at the Ghana School of Law and has participated in several international arbitration hearings.
The President’s nominee has consulted for public sector institutions, including the Attorney General’s Department, Exim Bank Ghana Ltd., Youth Employment Authority, National Lottery Authority, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Trade Fair Company Limited, and the Ghana Olympic Committee. Lawyer Kissi is also an Associate at the African Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Crime Prevention, and the National Moot Court Co-ordinator for the Commonwealth Moot Court Competition on International Criminal Justice and also the Vice-Chairperson of the Appeals Committee of the Ghana Football Association.
A Managing Partner of Cromwell Gray LLP, a reputable law firm in Accra, the legal practitioner is the Chairman of the Electronic Communications Tribunal taking over from Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah who resigned from the Tribunal on July 1, 2019.
He has argued numerous cases before the Superior Court of Ghana and has also been engaged in several international business transactions in addition to overseeing the affairs and adjudication of appeals at the Electronic Communications Tribunal as stipulated in the Tribunal’s Act 775 of 2008.
