OSP used GHS129m of GHS322m allocated

The Office of the Special Prosecutor under Mr Martin Amidu used a total of GHS129,016,189.52 out of the GHS322,097,921.40 allocated to the office between 2018 and 2020, a report from the Ministry of Finance has said.

“The Office of the Special Prosecutor’s approved ceiling of GHS180.16 million for year 2019 increased significantly as compared to the revised allocation of GHS138.14 million given for year 2020”, the statement said.

It noted that the year 2018 “recorded the lowest allocation of GHS3.79 million and this could be attributed to the fact that, the Office had now been established and their allocation formed part of the 2018 budget of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Office”.

With regard to releases made to the Office under the various economic classifications, the Ministry said “amounts of GHS154,261.84 and GHS65,690,067.55 were released as of the end of the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years”.

Also, an amount of GHS63,171,860.13 has been released as of 16 November 2020.

However, the Ministry noted that “one major challenge identified during the implementation of their budgets in the period under review is their inability to initiate transactions on the GIFMIS platform to facilitate release of funds”.

Mr Amidu resigned from his post on Monday, 16 November 2020.

Among other things, he said his office was mostly under-staffed, under-resourced and under-funded.