The Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Yaw Domelevo has called on the government to commercialize the prosecution of corruption cases. In his opinion, decentralizing the prosecution of corruption and corruption-related cases was not good enough. Mr. Domelevo made this call at the 3rd Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu Memorial Lecture in Accra.

Speaking on the theme ‘Protecting the Public Purse –keeping the gate shut before the horse bolts, Mr Domelevo opined that we can only deal with corruption when we allow private individuals and institutions to “prosecute corrupt citizens for a living”. If we leave corruption to few people and institutions, corruption will not be reduced, he remarked.

He suggested if as a nation, we commercialize the prosecution of corruption cases, private citizens will be empowered to investigate cases on their own and prosecute to recover stolen public funds knowing that they will receive a share of the recovered funds. There should be a generous reward scheme for anyone who successfully recovers proceeds of corruption for the government. Mr. Domelevo proposed if we will give between 10% and 20% of the amount successfully recovered as a reward, corruption will be nipped in the bud. Others have tried it and it is working for them, he said.

Mr Domelevo also appealed to the government to resource the anti-corruption institutions to ensure that they perform to meet public expectations. Government may have the best intentions but without resources these intentions will only be a dream.

The Auditor-General also said the laws on Internal Audit should be revised to make Internal Auditors independent of spending officers and to put them under the Internal Audit Agency. When these measures are taken, he reiterated, Internal Auditors will be more professional in the discharge of their duties.

The Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu Memorial Lecture was established in 2014 to recognize and immortalize the life and works of Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu a Chartered Accountant, Politician and Public Servant, who died in office whilst serving as Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. The Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu Memorial Lectures are organised under the generic theme of sound management and accounting for Ghana’s public finances. This year’s Lecture was held on Thursday, 20 September, 2018.