Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dominic Ayine, has reaffirmed his commitment to prosecuting individuals found culpable of stealing state funds, insisting that imprisonment and asset recovery are not mutually exclusive.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series held on July 29, 2025, at the Jubilee House in Accra, the Attorney General said, “I want to jail persons who have looted state resources but at the same time I am pragmatic enough to know that it is not in every instance that is possible. In those circumstances, I’ll opt for non-conviction based asset recovery.”
Referencing the ongoing Kwabena Adu-Boahen investigation, the Attorney General noted that he has been transparent from the start about his openness to plea bargaining with individuals who have been investigated and found to have misappropriated public funds.
“I minced no words about my intentions and will therefore not shut the door to any accused person willing to enter into negotiations with my office for purposes of reaching a plea agreement,” he said, adding that his approach aligns with the central objective of the “ORAL” initiative to recover stolen state resources.
While acknowledging that full recovery is not always possible, the Minister of state clarified that the goal remains to retrieve as much of the loot as realistically possible. “Of course, recovering the loot and jailing looters are not mutually exclusive and I believe that, that is what citizens are pushing for. In other words, both can take place and that will be full-fleshed accountability,” he added.
He further cited Ghana’s plea bargaining statute, which allows the Attorney General to negotiate deals that may include dropping charges in exchange for restitution. According to him, such negotiations are legitimate if they help retrieve stolen resources.
“Anyone familiar with plea negotiations would agree that it is right to go into the negotiation room and come out without giving up something in order to clinch a deal,” he explained.
The Attorney General also invoked Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), which permits an accused person to plead guilty and pay restitution in cases involving harm to the state’s property or finances. Such an arrangement, by law, can result in a non-custodial sentence.
“As the Attorney General, I will not oppose the use of Section 35 of the Courts Act to achieve the purposes of ORAL,” he said.
SOURCE: GBC Online
