Member of Parliament for Ketu North, Eric Edem Agbana, has welcomed the Presidents decision to establish special courts to handle cases arising from the Auditor-General’s reports.
The Ketu North MP describes the move as an effective way to fast track and ensure accountability and justice.
The Presidency announced plans to set up the special courts following a meeting on October 20, between President John Dramani Mahama, the Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, the Attorney-General Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, and the Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu.
In a statement, the Presidency said, “The initiative forms part of Government’s broader effort to enhance accountability, deter misuse of public funds, and ensure prompt recovery of monies owed to the State.”
Speaking on Tv3 on October 22, Mr. Agbana, who serves on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said the volume of Auditor-General’s reports before his committee shows the level of misappropriation across public institutions.
“When you come to my office I have about 15 very voluminous books. These are just reports for 2024 that we are currently dealing with,” he stated.
“When you go into the details, you will weep for this country because the level of infractions, misappropriation, procurement violations and abuse of public funds across all levels, departments and agencies, it breaks your heart,” he added.
He expressed his agreement with the creation of specialized courts to handle these cases.
“The corruption that we talk about has become a culture across all levels in most of these institutions. So I am happy that President Mahama is interested in having specialized courts,” he said.
Edem Agbana noted that these courts will possess the key qualities needed for handling such cases.
“When you’re dealing with financial crime, it demands a certain level of meticulousness and of forensic accuracy because you want to get into the details and make sure everybody responsible is punished,” he noted.
Mr. Agbana said the establishment of the courts would help expedite justice and ensure accountability.
“So I am happy that we have specialized courts. What this will do is that you have courts that will fast-track the prosecutions,” he said.
“It will help ous to fast-track the processes and get those who were responsible for the looting, mismanagement, the misappropriation, the gross and plain stealing from us as taxpayers,” he added. “The fast-track courts for me is the way to go.”
The MP then cautioned these courts against deliberate attempts to delay proceedings in such cases, noting that some accused persons use legal loopholes to buy time.
“They go to court, place an injunction, file an application today and all of that. Even when they know that eventually they will be pronounced guilty, they engage in all sorts of tricks,” he said.
He cited the recent case involving the National Service Authority (NSA) as an example of such tactics.
“I’m reading in one of the news portals that one of the accused has been diagnosed with some mental ailment. The first day they went to court, the person went to seek for an excuse duty,” he said.
“We don’t need to be tolerating some of these things. Even if we have to convict people in absentia,” he stressed.
