Why is there no mention of Cecilia Dapaah’s asset declaration in the investigations? – Dr. Pumpuni Asante asks

Kojo Pumpuni Asante, has expressed displeasure with the anti-corruption institutions investigating Cecilia Dapaah’s case for not accessing the asset declaration documents of the embattled former Sanitation Minister.

He said the former Sanitation Minister’s asset declaration forms would have helped both the OSP and the EOCO to ascertain the assets and liabilities of Madam Cecilia Dapaah.

“I have not heard anybody say that Madam Dapaah’s asset declaration forms have been accessed and that these were the things that she stated in terms of assets and liabilities and they match whatever we have discovered,” Dr.

Pumpuni said in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM on Wednesday, May 8.

He further argued that the NPP government, which largely campaigned on corruption in the 2016 elections, should be interested in probing the case further.

Moreover, Dr.

Pumpuni noted that the government owes Ghanaians a genuine explanation on the case, stressing that it cannot be truncated abruptly.

“For a government that made fighting corruption a key issue from 2016, set up the OSP and has touted its investment in these agencies, there is every reason why we still have to have an explanation, a genuine one that can be verified as to the sources of these monies.”

He added, “For me, once that is not resolved, nobody can say that Madam Dapaah has been cleared and we should walk away.”

A-G advises EOCO not to probe case

Upon a request for advice by EOCO on the matter, the Attorney General’s office in a letter dated April 25, 2024 and copied to EOCO, said it found that the OSP did not submit the report on its collaborative investigation to EOCO.

Additionally, the office noted the OSP has not responded to EOCO’s request for its findings.

According to the Attorney General’s office, the docket presented to EOCO only contains the OSP’s letter transmitting the docket, the diary of action, statements taken during the investigation, and letters written by the OSP to other institutions like the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks for inquiries.

Further analysis of the docket by the Attorney General’s office revealed that the OSP did not find any evidence of corruption or corruption-related offenses against Cecilia Dapaah.

The Attorney General’s office emphasised that the key to pursuing money laundering investigations is the capacity to prove that financial gains were obtained from criminal proceeds arising from unlawful 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.”

EOCO returns docket to OSP

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has revealed it returned the docket on former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on Friday, May 3, 2024.

EOCO, in a statement on Tuesday, May 7, noted, amongst other things, that the OSP failed to give EOCO the report on the ‘transboundary investigations’ it carried out on the Cecilia Dapaah case.

“Following the review of the docket presented by the OSP and the advice of the Attorney-General, EOCO returned the original docket received from the OSP back to the OSP on 3rd May, 2024.”