IMF SHAKES GHANA: ‘OSP MAY NEVER WIN A SINGLE MAJOR CASE AT THIS RATE!’
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has delivered a pointed critique of Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), indicating that the institution risks continued failure in confronting major corruption cases due to fundamental structural weaknesses, chief among these weaknesses is the lack of a clear, consistent, and enforceable charging policy. The IMF’s Ghana Governance Diagnostic Assessment, released this month, reveals that while the OSP has been legally empowered since its establishment under the 2017 Act, it does not possess the internal systems required to determine when a case is strong enough to proceed to court. According to the report analyzed by JoyNews Research, this gap lies at the heart of the OSP’s struggle to secure convictions in high-profile corruption cases. The IMF notes with concern that “there is currently no clear and consistent policy in place at the OSP which determines when a case meets the legal and evidential burdens for proceeding to charge and assessing whether it is likely to result in a conviction.” The absence of such a policy, it argues, creates serious inconsistencies in decision-making. It states that Prosecutors lack a uniform benchmark for assessing evidence, determining whether a case is ready for court, or evaluating its likelihood of success. This could mean cases may be rushed to court without being fully prepared, abandoned mid-process, or inconsistently pursued depending on who handles them. According to the IMF, the consequences of this policy vacuum weaken public trust in the institution’s choices and contribute to uncertainty about its prosecutorial strategy. This weakness is directly linked to the OSP’s inability to secure major corruption convictions. The report states that “successful high level prosecutions are not common and, unless action is taken, this could remain the case for a long time.”
