The Office of the President has said former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu should be blamed for the lack of appropriate space for his office to function efficiently, as he rejected several suitable office buildings allocated to him.  

Mr Amidu, citing several reasons for his resignation, added that his office could not function efficiently from a three-bedroom property with boys’ quarters.

Reacting to this claim, the Office of the President disclosed that the government allocated several buildings to house Mr Amidu’s office but he rejected all of them.

“Your office rejected various allocations of suitable accommodation with the result that you remained at your present accommodation by choice and not some grand design by the government to ensure your office didn’t function as it should,” a reply to Mr Amidu signed by Secretary to the President Nana Asante Bediatuo said.

It explained that: “On 17 September 2018, a meeting was held at the Office of the Chief of Staff, at which you were present to explore means of addressing the urgent challenges of the Office of Special Prosecutor, one of which undoubtedly, was accommodation. A Committee was set up to identify a building suitable for housing the Office. The Committee set out immediately to embark on the search for accommodation for the Office.

“On the next day, 18 September 2018, a cluster of buildings consisting of one two-storey building and two single-storey buildings were identified opposite the Bank Hospital at Cantonments, Accra.

“On 20 September 2018, the Committee, together with the Deputy Chief of Staff, your good self, your Secretary and other staff of your Office, inspected the buildings. After inspection, you expressed satisfaction with the buildings. A team from the Ministry of Works and Housing immediately took measurements and was ready to undertake the necessary alterations to meet the specific demands of your Office.

“On 21 September 2018, you invited a team from the Architectural Engineering Services Limited (AESL) to inspect and expedite action on the renovation works.

“Surprisingly, on 4 October 2018, you placed a telephone call to the Chief of Staff to indicate a preference for another building belonging to the erstwhile Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) close to the British High Commission at Ridge instead of the cluster of buildings opposite the Bank Hospital. On the same 4 October 2018, the Chief of Staff by a letter referenced as (SCR/DA96/135/01/A) instructed the Ministry of Trade and Industries (MoTI) to release the said building to your Office.

“In order to secure that building for your Office, the Office of the President actually constructed a fence wall to ward off encroachers while processes were initiated to award the contract for the renovation of the building to a contractor.

“While the renovation of the GNTC building was underway, you halted the works and requested that a ten-storey building at Ridge belonging to the GETFund rather be renovated instead for occupation by you and your Office. The Office of the President once again obliged this request. It is noteworthy that this particular building had been allocated to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, which had actually paid for the place and yet priority was given to your office and GIPC asked to relinquish same.

“On 2 April, 2019, a meeting was convened at the Office of the President with officers of the GETFund, at which you were present, to discuss the road map for renovation of the building for use by your Office.

“On 3 April, 2019, representatives of your Office and officers from CONSAR Ltd and Messrs. Evans Anfom and Associates met to conduct a joint inventory and inspection of defects with the facility. You subsequently generated your own list of defects contained in an eight (8) page document. The contractor nonetheless graciously accepted, compared and merged with the defects earlier jointly identified with you.

“As of 14 May 2020, Messrs. Consar Ltd had carried out all the remedial works on the building and the same was certified by GETFund as ready to be handed over to your Office.

“On 10 July 2020, you wrote to the Office of the President informing that the procurement plan for your Office for 2020 had been approved and that the award of a single-source contract for the conversion of the 10-storey building owned by GETFund into suitable office accommodation with appropriate demarcations was part of the approved plan. The Office of the President granted the Office of the Special Prosecutor permission to initiate procurement processes for the award by single-source procurement, as requested by you, of the contract for the conversion of the building into suitable office accommodation and divisions.

“GETFund had expressed the intention to offer the building for sale. As you are aware, the Office of the President agreed to acquire it for your Office. Pending conclusion of negotiations for the purchase of the building, the Office of the President agreed to rent the building for three months for immediate occupation of three floors by your Office since the landlady of the premises currently occupied by your Office had indicated the intention not to renew the tenancy agreement on its expiry. You flatly refused to accept this arrangement on the basis that your Office could not share the building with any other office for security concerns.

“By a letter dated 29 July 2020 (SCR/DA/287/372/02), the Chief of Staff informed you that the GETFund building was ready for occupation of your Office and requested a convenient date to handover the building to you. You refused to do so, and in your letter dated 3 August 2020 (OSP/SCR/24/33/20), you stated that “it is my considered view that if your proposal for handing over the GETFund building to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was wittingly made on a settled conviction that you have been able to secure a fitting accommodation with all the divisions for occupation by the OSP, then, the proposal ought to have been made to H.E. the President to fix a date for the public commissioning of the building for the occupation of this Office without any further delay”.

“On 11 September 2020, the Chief of Staff wrote to you indicating receipt of a letter dated 26 August 2020 from the GETFund confirming the release of the entire building to Central Government for occupation by the Office of Special Prosecutor. The Chief of Staff, in this letter, informed you of the release of the keys to the main entrance of the building to your Office and further, that, the keys to other doors in the building had been left in the locks for you to access. Security had also been deployed to secure the premises until such time as you made your own arrangements for security desired by you. The Chief of Staff’s letter and the keys to the GETFund building were delivered to your Office at 2 pm of the same day but you instructed your officers not to accept any parcel from the Office of the President.

“On 14 September 2020, you wrote to the Chief of Staff conveying your refusal ‘to take possession of a bunch of keys disrespectfully sent to your Office in an envelope through a messenger and to ask the messenger to return them to the sender’. The Chief of Staff, by another letter dated 18 September 2020, explained to you the reason for delivery of the keys to you in an envelope and urged you to reconsider your rejection of the keys.

“With the greatest respect, your decision not to accept the keys to the 10-storey building identified by you and renovated after rejecting other buildings jointly identified with you, is very troubling and does not reflect a desire to establish an operational office for the Special Prosecutor. Indeed, your behaviour, in connection with the acquisition of suitable accommodation for the Office of Special Prosecutor, remains inexplicable and unwarranted. Suffice to say that it is undeniable and abundantly clear on the facts that every effort was made by Government to assign your Office a suitable premises from which to operate efficiently and effectively.”