We didn’t clear Cecilia Dapaah, we gave EOCO platinum information – OSP

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has refuted claims that it cleared former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah, before transferring her case to the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).

The OSP investigated Cecilia Dapaah for alleged corruption and corruption-related offences after news reports emerged that their domestic staff had stolen millions in local and foreign currencies, along with other personal effects belonging to the former minister and her husband.

After several months of investigation, the OSP closed its case and handed it over to EOCO, stating that the offence uncovered fell largely within the realm of money laundering. The Office added that it might reopen the case should further evidence supporting corruption investigations come to light.

However, EOCO sent the OSP's transfer docket to the Attorney General's office for advice on whether to conduct further investigations. The AG's Office advised EOCO to halt investigations on the grounds that the file lacked an investigative report and further documentation to support a money laundering prosecution. The AG also noted that the police were investigating the source of funding by Madam Cecilia Dapaah, so there was no need for EOCO to continue.

In a separate statement, the Attorney General's office accused the OSP of failing to provide EOCO with sufficient information regarding its collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to aid further investigations.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Joy News over the weekend, the Director for Strategy, Research, and Communications at the OSP, Mr. Samuel Appiah Darko, clarified that his office did not clear Cecilia Dapaah of corruption-related offences.

He explained that the OSP closed its investigation after it showed that the offence was largely in the province of money laundering. It also noted that Madam Dapaah could not reasonably explain all the seized monies from her home, as all answers were found to be untrue after investigations.

Mr. Darko maintained that EOCO did not request the FBI investigation report, although there were joint representatives from both agencies working on the file transfer.

"We want to make it very clear that EOCO did not request the FBI report. Even if they did, the FBI report contains a lot of confidentiality clauses directed particularly to the OSP, and you can't just give it to another agency because you have transferred the case. There ought to be a lot of inter-agency collaboration and clearance. So if it had happened, we may have triggered the clearance clauses so that either we are cleared by the FBI or the FBI sends the report directly to EOCO."

He said the OSP referred the case to EOCO with all relevant documentation, including caution statements of over 20 suspects in America, Accra, and Kumasi, and other information, including claims by relatives of Madam Dapaah that the monies and some jewellery in her house were family heirlooms, to assist EOCO in conducting its own independent investigation into the financial transactions involved.

"The OSP should be considered a whistleblower to EOCO. As a whistleblower, we provided EOCO with platinum information. Ordinarily, you will not even find other agencies giving such information to EOCO," Mr. Darko noted in the interview.

The OSP's Director for Strategy, Research, and Communications further explained why his outfit referred the case to EOCO instead of proceeding with the alleged money laundering probe.

"Our referral is not just in respect of a transaction in America. Also, we were not conducting a money laundering investigation; we were conducting a corruption investigation. We believe we had all it takes to send that referral to EOCO because there was no way we could have proceeded to investigate and write a report on money laundering and then send it to EOCO for onward transfer to the Attorney General. We only referred the matter to EOCO as whistleblowers for EOCO to investigate... We cannot instruct EOCO on what they should do," he added.



KOD