The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Awelana Addah, has said the Attorney-General’s (A-G) advice to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) on the Cecilia Dapaah matter does not kill the case.
The A-G’s advice to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the matter, according to Madam Addah, still breathes life into it.
With EOCO’s mandate to investigate, the GII boss says nothing stops them from probing the matter even as the CID is also doing its work.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight Thursday, May 02, 2024, on TV3, she said the EOCO should have conducted the investigation and later seek advice from the A-G since that is its mandate.
“I believe that the advice of the Attorney-General does not put this case to bed. Because the Attorney-General himself has said that they already asked the police to do an investigation on the source of money so if the police is doing this, nothing stops EOCO and let me add again, the EOCO’s mandate is to investigate.
“The EOCO works with the Attorney-General in the sense that they would investigate and seek advice for prosecution so I also believe that EOCO would have done the investigation and then gone for advice after, [but] I’m not sure that has happened,” she told Alfred Ocansey, host of the show.
She continued that, “whatever be the case, my opinion and that which we hold as an organisation is the fact that a lot more should have been done –a lifestyle audit aspect of the case still remains valid.”
Prof. Adei’s corruption allegations in contract awards – EOCO clears Roads Ministry
Background
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has been advised by the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice against initiating money laundering investigations into former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
In response to EOCO’s request for advice on the matter, the Attorney General’s office in a letter dated April 25, 2024, and copied to EOCO, said the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) did not furnish EOCO with the report on their investigations which suggested that the former Minister was involved in money laundering.
The Attorney General’s office pointed out that the OSP had not responded to EOCO’s inquiry for its findings on the issue.
According to the Attorney General’s assessment, the docket presented to EOCO only included the OSP’s letter transmitting the docket, the diary of action, statements taken during the investigation, and correspondence sent by the OSP to other institutions such as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks for inquiries.
Upon further scrutiny of the docket, the Attorney General’s office determined that the OSP did not uncover any evidence of corruption or corruption-related offenses involving Cecilia Dapaah.
The Attorney General’s office stressed that the key of pursuing money laundering investigations lies in the ability to demonstrate that financial gains were derived from criminal proceeds arising from illegal activity.
“In the absence of the identification of any criminality associated with the properties retrieved from the suspects, the OSP’s referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis.”
The Attorney General advised against EOCO delving into the source of Cecilia Dapaah’s funds, as the CID had been tasked with handling that aspect of the case.
“Even though as part of your mandate you could commence investigations into the source(s) of the money found in the home of the suspects, we do not find this necessary since this Office before the reference by the OSP, had instructed the Police Service who are already seised with other aspects of the case to investigate the sources of the huge sums of money found in the homes of the suspects, a fact the OSP is aware of. We find from the OSP’s docket, marked as B1″, a copy of the Attorney-General’s letter to the Director-General of the CID dated 31st July 2023”, the statement stated.
