{"id":100331,"date":"2025-10-26T04:46:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100331"},"modified":"2025-10-26T04:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:46:37","slug":"corruption-fight-sabotaged-by-procured-judges-and-judicial-delays-domelevo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100331","title":{"rendered":"Corruption fight sabotaged by \u2018procured\u2019 judges and judicial delays \u2013 Domelevo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ghana\u2019s former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has delivered a critique of the nation\u2019s anti-corruption efforts, alleging that the fight is being deliberately undermined by a judiciary susceptible to political and financial manipulation. <\/p>\n

Mr Domelevo did not spare the legal fraternity, claiming that highly resourceful corruption suspects are employing powerful lawyers and \u2018procuring\u2019 judges to ensure indefinite delays until a favourable change of government facilitates the collapse of their cases.<\/p>\n

Speaking on TV3 on October 25, the respected anti-corruption crusader insisted that unless the judicial system undergoes radical and urgent reform, the retrieval of stolen state funds will remain impossible.<\/p>\n

Mr Domelevo laid bare the alleged strategy used by politically connected individuals accused of high-level corruption.<\/p>\n

The goal, he contends, is not to win the case on merit but to stretch the proceedings across electoral cycles, exploiting Ghana\u2019s partisan political system.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey can even procure judges. A judge may say, \u2018What I can do is to keep adjourning until your party comes to power; then the case will be thrown out,\u2019\u201d he alleged.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He argued that these deliberate, drawn-out judicial delays serve as a protective shield for the accused, effectively denying justice and preventing the state from recovering vital public funds.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe money is still in someone\u2019s pocket and not in use. Justice delayed is justice denied,\u201d he said, urging Parliament to treat the necessary judicial reforms as a certificate-of-urgency matter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To combat the deliberate dragging of feet in court proceedings, the former Auditor-General proposed radical reforms to expedite the prosecution of corruption cases.<\/p>\n

1. Time Limit and Penalties:<\/strong> Domelevo proposed a strict time frame for the completion of corruption cases, regardless of their complexity, arguing that judges who fail to meet this standard should face severe sanctions.<\/p>\n

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He proposed a maximum of 9 to 12 months for corruption cases, with penalties for judges who exceed that period without justifiable reason.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He believes judges who stretch cases beyond a year should face misconduct proceedings, holding them personally accountable for procedural delays.<\/p>\n

2. A 24-Hour Justice System:<\/strong> To handle the increased workload and clear the corruption case backlog efficiently, Domelevo called for the immediate operationalization of a 24-hour justice system.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe all don\u2019t have to go to court at 9 a.m. and close by 3 p.m. A 24-hour economy should start in the Judiciary too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He noted the recent influx of new lawyers\u2014over 800 were recently called to the Bar\u2014suggesting that they could be recruited as part-time judges to hear cases in the evenings, ensuring continuous judicial activity and eliminating bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

His core argument remains that Ghana will not defeat corruption until the justice system itself is fundamentally reformed and made impermeable to influence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CorruptionGhana\u2019s former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has delivered a critique of the nation’s anti-corruption efforts, alleging that the fight is being deliberately undermined by a judiciary susceptible to political and financial manipulation.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2950,432,1945,8867,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ag","category-corruption","category-hp-news-8","category-judge","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}