Former Auditor-General and a member of the ORAL preparatory team, Daniel Yao Domelevo has advocating for a legal reform that bans stay of proceedings in corruption-related cases.

According to him, stay of proceedings delays corruption trials which merits criminals and their lawyers which also results in nolle prosequi when there is a change in government.

Speaking in an interview on TV3’s The Key Point, Saturday, October 25, 2025. Mr Domelevo indicated that Ghana will not be the first because the Nigerian Supreme Court has blocked stay of proceedings in corruption prosecutions under Section 306 of its Administration of Criminal Justice Act and Section 40 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act.

“Put a time limit on trials. If you go to Nigeria, they have made good progress. The Supreme Court in Nigeria based on Section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and then Section 40 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act has prevented Stay of Proceedings in criminal cases so we should apply that. “If not to all criminal cases in Ghana at least to corruption-related cases.”

Domelevo stands by the narrative that once Ghana adopt a similar rule, the accused would not have the option to stay proceedings for years once a corruption trial begins.

“Once we start trying you on corruption, you can’t go to a high court and come back and tell us stay proceedings, let me finish my appeal before you continue so that we can bring finality and a law must guide us. Until we do that, the prayer of criminals and their lawyers is delayed, because a change of government could lead to a nolle prosequi and the case dies” he added.

He is therefore urging Parliament to amend the Internal Audit Agency Act so that internal auditors are not controlled by the very people they are auditing.

He further mentioned that auditors currently operate under principal spending officers who can easily influence their work through transfers, promotion threats, or even dismissal.

He noted that protecting auditors from such pressures would enable them to detect theft early and prevent future losses rather than only pursuing past ones.

Amid the advocacy, Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, indicated plans to escalate his legal battle to the Supreme Court months ago, after the Court of Appeal dismissed his application for a stay of proceedings.

Nana Appiah Mensah, who is popularly known as NAM1, suffered another legal setback on Monday, 19 May 2025, when a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously rejected his request to suspend proceedings in the ongoing criminal trial at the Financial Division of the High Court in Accra.

“It is not over yet. There is also the Supreme Court,” NAM1 told reporters after the ruling, adding that he would consult his lawyers before deciding on the next steps.

The embattled Chief Executive Officer and his two companies, Brew Marketing Consult and Menzgold Ghana Limited, are currently facing trial on 39 charges. These charges include selling gold without a licence, operating a deposit-taking business without approval, inducement to invest, defrauding by false pretence, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering.

The charges are in connection with an alleged misappropriation of over GH¢340 million belonging to thousands of customers.

In July 2024, the High Court directed NAM1 to open his defence after dismissing his submission of no case to answer. His legal team subsequently filed an appeal to challenge that decision and applied for a stay of proceedings, first at the High Court and later at the Court of Appeal, but both requests were denied.

The Court of Appeal panel, which was presided over by Justice Gbiel Suurbaareh and included Justices Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe and Christopher Archer, ruled that NAM1 had failed to show any exceptional circumstances that would warrant the grant of a stay.

Following this decision, the case at the Financial Court is expected to continue on 28 May 2025.

In the same vein, an Accra High Court dismissed an application filed by lawyers for the former Director-General of the National Signals Bureau (NSB), Mr Kwabena Adu-Boahene, for stay of proceedings pending an appeal.

The application concerned an earlier ruling by the Court's refusal to grant the defence access to additional documents they indicated were material and exculpatory evidence to help them with their case.

The accused, his wife, and two others have been charged with 11 offences, including stealing, laundering GH¢49.1 million in state funds, willfully causing financial loss to the state, conspiracy, collaboration to commit crime, and abuse of public office. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, Counsel for the accused persons, argued that without those documents, their clients could not get a fair trial and therefore asked the court to stay the ongoing criminal proceedings pending the appeal.

Dr Justice Srem-Sai, the Deputy Attorney-General, opposed the stay.

The State argued that the defence had not established exceptional circumstances for stay of proceedings to be granted.

Dr Srem-Sai said the requested materials were either irrelevant or not held by the prosecution, points that underpinned the earlier refusal to order further disclosure.