The Director of Programmes and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante has said former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah owes Ghanaians the bigger responsibility of explaining the source of her wealth that is in contention.
Mr Asante believes the struggle to get to the root of the matter is partly due to the Minister’s failure to clarify matters and clear her name in the interest of transparency and accountability.
Dr Pumpuni made this comment following the seeming turf war between the Economic and Organised Crimes Office and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) over the state of the investigations.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in a recent advice to EOCO suggested that pursuing money laundering allegations against Madam Dapaah would be baseless.
The Ministry gave the impression that the OSP had not done a good job and that it was going to be difficult if not impossible for the EOCO to pursue any money laundering allegations.
The OSP has since fought back, refuting the claims made by the Attorney-General and EOCO.
The two anti-graft agencies have since engaged in what looks like a blame game.
Speaking on JoyFM’s SMS on May 8 about the latest development, Dr Pumpuni stated that further investigation could have provided more clarity on the case, given the gravity of the allegations against Cecilia Dapaah.
He stated that Cecilia Dapaah was a minister at the time when the money was found in her house and that increased her responsibility to provide a clear and transparent explanation for the money, to demonstrate that it was legitimately obtained.
“There is even a bigger responsibility on her to communicate to the public that these are all my documentation that clearly shows that these monies are legitimate. We haven’t heard anything on that up to this point. So we are going round in circles,” he said.
Dr Pumpuni recalled previous efforts to develop protocols for cooperation and coordination between Ghanaian anti-corruption agencies.
“I think those protocols are important. You know how the agencies can collaborate because this obviously doesn’t help anybody. It can only help those who intend to take the public’s money. Because then we all will have inconclusive investigations, and then the person can walk away.”
According to him, the Attorney-General still has the responsibility of ensuring that a thorough and credible explanation is provided for the sources of the money found in Cecilia Dapaah’s house.
The AG’s office has already indicated that the aspect of probing the source of the money is a matter being handled by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.
