Cecilia Dapaah case: Domelevo calls for a merger of OSP, EOCO

Daniel Yao , the former Auditor-General, has stated that the mere creation of additional institutions does not win in the fight against corruption in the country.

He, therefore, called for the merger of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

Mr.

Domelevo’s calls come on the back of the two state institutions (OSP and EOCO), appear to be passing the buck in Cecilia Dapaah’s cash saga.

As part of President Akufo-Addo’s campaign promise in 2016, the OSP was established in 2018 as Ghana’s “specialised and independent anti-corruption institution.”

Moreover, the OSP has the object of “investigating and prosecuting specific cases of alleged or suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in the public and private sectors and recovering the proceeds of such acts.”

Furthermore, EOCO also has the mandate to “monitor and investigate economic and organised crime” and on the authority of the Attorney-General to “prosecute these offences to recover the proceeds of crime and provide for related matters.”

However, according to the former Auditor-General, the two bodies must be merged for an effective corruption fight in Ghana.

Mr.

Domelevo, in an interview on Joy FM on Wednesday, May 8, maintained that despite the presence of the EOCO, the police, the OSP, and the Attorney-General, there seems to be no progress in the Cecilia Dapaah matter.

“I cannot agree more with my earlier suggestion that we have to merge these institutions.

The creation of additional institutions by itself does not help us fight corruption and corruption-related offences.

“I have also admonished that fruitless and wasteful spending must be stopped because fruitless and wasteful expenditure denies the citizens the benefits of public funds, just as corruption,” he noted.

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Also, Mr.

Domelevo expressed disagreement with the OSP, EOCO, and the A-G’s office in their handling of the alleged money laundering case against former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah.

“I disagree with the three institutions to be honest with you.

I don’t think the investigation done by the OSP was funded by money from their pocket, it was public funds so they were doing the investigation in the public interest, so whatever information is available to them, which can aid EOCO to do their work, I think they should have made that available to them.

“So to keep it away from EOCO, I think that was not right,” said Mr.

Domelevo.

Meanwhile, 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.”