Daniel Yaw Domelevo, a former Auditor-General, has lamented Ghana’s legal provisions that guide the fight against corruption.
He states that there are many loopholes in the laws that delay the delivery of justice in corrupt cases, which need to be amended to enhance the fight against graft in the country.
Domelevo warns that the government’s failure to amend the laws would suggest it lacks the intent to fight corruption.
The former Attorney-General disclosed in an interview on Joy FM on Saturday, October 11, 2025, that the country’s existing legal provisions make it difficult to achieve timely outcomes in prosecuting corruption cases.
“We need a law on reverse burden,” he said. “We need a law to bring finality to the prosecution of corruption cases. For instance, six months or one year must be a time limit.”
According to him, public trust in the justice system will continue to erode without such reforms to change the pace of fighting corruption in the country. Failure to do so, he says, suggests the government is also corrupt.
“We need to change the legal framework, and let me be blunt here. If the government refuses to do these changes, it only tells me that either they are also doing the same thing, they are also stealing, or they have the intention of stealing. That is the only motivation which will stop you from doing these things that bring about quick wins,” he said.
Reiterating his earlier comment that nine months should be sufficient to jail some corrupt officials from the previous administration, he emphasised that the slow pace of ongoing corruption cases remains discouraging.
“Nine months is not small, my brother. Before we realise, we are finished with a quarter of President Mahama’s term,” he said. “When I look at the quantum of money we should recover and the snail speed at which we are moving, I’m like, when are we going to get there? We may not get there.”
To him, the weak laws will delay prosecutions until government changes hands, allowing new administrations to discontinue ongoing corruption cases, where the country becomes the loser in the end.
“The prayer of the corruptors and their lawyers is that there should be a change in government. Then you hear ‘prosec’, and our money is gone,” he said.
He also proposed measures to improve judicial efficiency, including longer court sittings. “We need to build the capacity of the judiciary so that they can work even in the night, so that the cases can go faster,” he said.
Mr Domelevo stressed that his remarks were not aimed at discrediting the work of the Attorney-General, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), or the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO). “I acknowledge the work being done by EOCO, the Attorney-General, the OSP and others. I am not satisfied, not because I was expecting convictions or recovered monies by now, but because of the legal framework,” he explained.
He stressed that there is no way the government will win the fight against corruption if the laws guiding the canker remain the same. “We have to change the speed at which we are moving and let people gain confidence that things are moving, and moving very fast,” he said.
ORAL: ‘Nine months is not a small amount of time’ – Domelevo berates A-G over lack of prosecution
