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Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong says her ministry cannot be blamed for the nation’s failure to prosecute those indicted in the Auditor General’s report for financial malfeasance.

Ghana lost over GH¢100 million in 2013 alone as a result of irregularities at the ministries, departments and agencies based on the 2011 performance.

President Mahama has on several occasions called on the AG to prosecute those offenders, but speaking to Parliament’s Public Account Committee, the Attorney General insists it is not the job of her ministry to do the investigations, which mostly is what is lacking.

“…you must understand that prosecution is a whole process. We cannot just get up, take the auditor general’s report to court, and prosecute based on it.”

She said: “there is a process of actually building a docket with the witness statements, with the charge statements, caution statements, a whole lot of things that there should be a diary of action. And so it’s not just the attorney general, it’s a holistic thing that must be done. we must work with the public accounts committee, with the investigative body.”

“…By our mandate in the constitution, the attorney general does not investigate, we prosecute… but we collaborate with all agencies to ensure that a very good docket is built and prosecuted in court.”

Meanwhile, speaking on Eyewitness News, ranking member on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Ibrahim Dey urged the AG to speed up the prosecution process.

“We want the process to be fast and transparent so that Ghanaians will actually know what is happening. But the actions should speak loudly so that the monies and resourced used by the Public Accounts Committee are not wasted and our recommendations piled up in a file.”