The Jubilee House has admitted withholding salaries due to the Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K Amidu as President Akufo Addo directs that all salaries owed the pissed Amidu should be paid him.
In a shock move on Monday, November 16, 2020, the Special Prosecutor had resigned with immediate effect, citing interference in his job by the Jubilee House and the deliberate withholding of funds necessary for him to properly dispense his functions in fighting corruption.
The office of the President through Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Opare wrote to Mr. Amidu today, November 17, 2020, stating that all arrears due the exited SP was paid.
“The President has directed me to ensure that all emoluments and benefits due you under law are paid to you accordingly,” the Chief of Staff wrote in the letter intercepted by Whatsup News.
In his resignation, Martin Amidu decried the continued withholding of his pay and narrated how he had been forced to finance some of his investigations from his pocket.
His Deputy, Jane Cynthia Naa Korshie Lamptey had also suffered the same fate at the Special Prosecutors Office (SPO).
“It is essential for me to state for the purpose of the records, and contrary to public perceptions, that my appointment letter was received on 5th February 2020 (almost two (2)-years after my appointment). The copy addressees made no efforts to honour any of the conditions of appointment in terms of emoluments and benefits of the appointment ever since my warrant of appointment was issued on 23rd February 2018 to the date of my letter of resignation,” Martin Amidu wrote in his resignation letter.
His lamented that notwithstanding him being starved of pay, “…I have never put the emoluments and benefits of the Office as central to my commitment and my passion for the establishment of an independent, effective, efficient and impartial anti-corruption Office of the Special Prosecutor before the end of the first term of Mr. President. This has not been possible for several reasons. The Deputy Special Prosecutor has also not been paid any emoluments since her appointment, and there is the need to redress that situation for her now that I am out of the way,” he said in the statement.
While the Presidency was attempting to douse the anger of Martin Amidu, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has already gone on the offensive, accusing Martin Amidu of lying about his condition of service.
In a statement issued today by the Director of Communications of the NPP, Yaw Boabeng Asamoah, he claims Mr. Amidu had been given everything he needed. In an interview with Accra-based Peace FM today, Mr. Asamoah revealed that the official accounts of the Special Prosecutor had up to GHC 60 million and that those funds could have been used in settling the outstanding emoluments.
“Ask him how much money he received in his official account over the past three years . . . He claims he didn’t have his appointment letter, what was he sitting there for? If his appointment letter had not been given to him and he can’t fend for himself, how was he surviving for the past three years? Go and check his account right now to see the money he has hoarded in his account,” Asamoah said on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo programme’.
For Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Martin Amidu was simply incompetent and should not blame the government for his failure to properly dispense his responsibilities.
“Martin’s administration just didn’t go well . . . He has over 60 million cedis in his account right now as we speak. From 2017, 2018, 2019, he was given money . . . it was put in the account to run the institution. The institution is not running; administratively the institution is not running . . . that is the crux of this matter. His inability to establish an administration is what he is saying that he’s living in a two-bedroom bungalow. What is he living in a two-bedroom bungalow for when you have a nine-story building? It’s situated at Ridge and is one of the GETFUND buildings. It was being amended to his satisfaction. The office of the Special Prosecutor, he has a nine-storey building dedicated to him,” Boabeng Asamoah alleged.