Two anti-graft bodies, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP), are at each other’s throats over the outcome of investigations regarding suspected corruption and money laundering against former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah.
The former minister came under investigation in July last year after she reported a theft that involved huge amounts of foreign and local currency against her domestic staff.
The OSP which had investigated her for seven months for suspected corruption, later transferred the case to EOCO for a money laundering probe over lack of mandate.
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However, according to EOCO, its findings so far have not shown those allegations to be true, as it later sought advice from the Attorney-General’s Office which confirmed the same. The OSP had also been blamed for failing to provide all the necessary documents to enable EOCO to make a meaningful investigation.
“We should be bold enough to come and tell the public that for this case, even though I suspected this at the time, that wasn’t what came out; we should be bold, said the Ghanaian. So, what I am going to do is that with the A-G’s advice, I will send the docket that we received from the OSP to him, saying that there is nothing in it,” EOCO boss Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo-Danquah said on Monday.
Read Also: EOCO to Return Docket on Cecilia Dapaah Back to OSP
But in a series of reactions, the OSP accused EOCO of having no interest in the matter, insisting that it provided a full docket on the case.
“Every piece of information that we had and needed to give to EOCO, the OSP gave to EOCO. And the standing committee that has been working between OSP and EOCO, there are unofficial communications between OSP and EOCO.
“What I am trying to tell you is that EOCO said they want the findings of our work on corruption, but you don’t need that because everything has already been kept in the file,” the Director of Strategy, Research, and Communications at the OSP, Samuel Appiah Darko, said on a Citi FM programme yesterday.
It’s not yet clear what will happen to the case as of now. While both agencies try to blame the other for the current situation, civil society actors like the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) say they are disappointed at the outcome of the matter, given that the case raised so many suspicions about the wealth of the minister and caused her resignation from office.
