The separation of powers of those who investigate and those who prosecute

When the Anti Corruption Bureau was established in 1982, its mission was to ensure the integrity of the public service through the effective enforcement of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) by imposing punitive criminal sanctions against those who are found guilty of corrupt practices. This mission still holds true till this day and it is the main core business of the Bureau. 

We perform the tasks of investigating every complaint and report that we receive and complete the investigation papers (IPs) before we forward them to the Public Prosecutor.  It is the Public Prosecutor (PP) who is assisted by Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) who assesses every IP that we forward and prefer the appropriate charges against the subject arrested in the IP. Under the Act, the sanction of the PP is required before every criminal prosecution can be commenced. This system ensures a check and balance between those who have the power of investigations and those who have the power to prosecute. 

There are more than one occasion that the Public Prosecutor disagrees with our findings which can result in a No Further Action (NFA) on the IPs forwarded.  The separation of powers ensures that no single authority has a complete domain on the way the criminal justice system works in this country. Personally and as a former DPP myself, I really honour this system as I know power corrupts and absolute power can corrupt anyone absolutely. I have kept reminding my officers that the system is put in place not to make our life more difficult but rather to ensure that our investigation is done in complete fairness. When there is an independent third party who assesses our investigation, there is always a conscious effort on every Investigation Officer to improve his quality of investigation.