The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has disclosed that it is conducting investigations into 16 Oil Marketing Companies over alleged irregularities involving the diversion of marine gas oil and gas oil products lifted in 2023 and 2024.

This information is contained in the OSP’s 2025 Half-Year Report, published in December 2025 and endorsed by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng.

The report indicates that the probes focus on suspected acts of corruption and related offences connected to petroleum products officially loaded during the period under review but allegedly diverted from their intended destinations.

The companies being investigated are Big Energy, Energetic Petroleum, Goodness Energy, Jet Petroleum, Kabore Oil, La Clem Ghana, Maxx Energy, Moari Oil Company, N3, Naagamni Ghana Ltd., Onxyma Company, Petro Sankofa, Plus Energy, Quantum Petroleum, Sotei Energy, and West Port Petroleum.

Additionally, the report reveals that the OSP is examining a separate matter involving the alleged diversion of condensate products lifted from the Ghana Gas Plant at Atuabo in 2024. The condensate was originally meant for delivery to the Tema Oil Refinery.

This aspect of the investigation implicates Maranatha Oil Services, which is suspected of diverting the products using five trucks registered in the name of R.B.A. Goodness Enterprise.

According to the OSP, the investigations are part of its ongoing mandate to fight corruption and protect public resources within the petroleum and energy sector.

Last week, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) strongly justified its financial and operational relevance, stating that through investigations and corruption-risk audits, it has generated savings for Ghana that exceed more than twenty times the total funds allocated to the office since it was established in 2018.

In the Half-Yearly Report covering the second half of 2025 (July to December), which was recently released, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng criticised a fresh move in Parliament to scrap the office, characterising the effort as a distraction orchestrated by vested interests “justly threatened by accountability”.

The report directly pushes back against claims by critics who have labelled the OSP a “drain on national resources”.

The Special Prosecutor noted that even though the office remains in its early stages of development and continues to face “immense budgetary challenges”, it has more than justified the resources allocated to it.

Figures from the OSP indicate that for every cedi spent by the taxpayer on the office, the country has been spared losses exceeding 20 cedis through the disruption of fraudulent contracts, asset recoveries, and the prevention of procurement violations.

“It cannot be maintained by any form of argument that the Office has not performed as expected and that it is a drain on national resources,” Mr Agyebeng stated in the report. “The Office... had a stellar record and its ultra-high profile and ground-breaking corruption and corruption-related investigations... had saved the nation more than twenty-fold the total amount of money actually released to the Office,” he stated.

"Therefore, it cannot be maintained by any form of argument that the Office has not performed as expected and that it is a drain on national resources."

The report details a period of "existential trial" during which a Private Member's Bill was introduced in Parliament by Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga and Majority Chief Whip Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor to repeal the OSP Act (Act 959). The bill sought to return prosecutorial power to the Attorney-General’s Office, citing "administrative inefficiencies".

The bill was, however, quickly pulled back after a strong and public intervention by President John Dramani Mahama, who has repeatedly maintained that calls to shut down the office are premature.

President Mahama maintained that the OSP remains the sole institution with the independence needed to prosecute officials within a sitting government, noting that this responsibility is one for which a Cabinet-member Attorney-General is “not well-suited”.

By January 2026, the OSP’s influence is reflected in the volume of major cases before it. Key among them is the prosecution of former National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Chief Executive Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and others (CR/0603/2025), as well as ongoing probes into the Airbus SE affair, payroll fraud that prevented losses of more than GHS 34 million in 2024 alone, the Cecilia Dapaah matter, and the continuing corruption-related case involving former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

The Special Prosecutor also stressed that the office remains open to oversight, citing its regular appearances before parliamentary committees.

He cautioned, however, that the 2026 fiscal year is likely to bring heightened pushback as the OSP broadens its Lifestyle Audits and Unexplained Wealth Investigations.

“The Office does not avoid accountability. It welcomes scrutiny,” the statement concluded, while maintaining that current attempts to dismantle the office are "advanced without any reference to the actual performance" of the agency.

Mr. Agyebeng was administered the Oath of Office and the Oath of Secrecy by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo today, August 5, 2021, at the Jubilee House in Accra. He was approved unanimously by Parliament for the role after vetting by the Appointments Committee. Mr. Agyebeng became the second person to occupy the office of Special Prosecutor after Mr. Martin Amidu who resigned in November 2020 amidst controversy.