Coalition for Democratic Accountability and Inclusive Governance C1173/12 Kotobabi Road, Pig Farm, Accra P.O.Box GP 17921, Accra-Ghana

Despite government interventions like the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the provision of some resources to some anti-corruption agencies and the passage of the Right to Information law, not much progress has been made in the fight against public corruption. [...] Agyei and the leaked copies of the last will and testament of the immediate-past Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, point to significant weaknesses in the design and implementation of some of the anti-corruption measures. [...] First, we question the legal propriety of the purported return of a portion of the forest lands to the Owoo family in light of decisions by the Supreme Court that lands compulsorily acquired by the State before the coming into force of the 1992 need not be returned to its original owners as the Constitution does not operate retrospectively and doing so would ‘create chaos and confusion in the land. [...] Curiously, the Lands Minister who is acting on the authority of the President (the constitutional trustee of public lands) in this purported return of lands failed to provide any solid reasons as to why the trustee-President has taken this decision which clearly is not in the interest of the beneficiaries of the trust (citizens of Ghana). [...] The revelations in the widely circulated leaked copies of the last will and testament of the immediate-past CEO of the Forestry Commission and a former General Secretary of the NPP, the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (aka ‘Sir John’) lends credence to this informed suspicion.