Ghana chases stolen cash abroad

Encouraged by the success of the Nigerian government in retrieving millions of dollars stolen by the dictator, General Sani Abacha and stashed away in foreign banks, the Kufuor administration is deploying weapons in its arsenal to locate, retrieve and repatriate funds looted by Ghanaian public officials and banked abroad.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on fighting corruption by African affiliates of Transparency International in Africa last week, Information and Presidential Affairs Minister, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey drop hints of the government?s request for local and international assistance in its bid to have Ghana?s stolen money brought back.

?It is very difficult to ascertain the amount of public funds that has found its way into private pockets, but if the figure of nearly one million dollars transferred by the jailed former deputy Finance Minister, Victor Selormey to a Dr. Boadu in the United States for no work done is anything to go by, then the country is dealing with instruments,? the paper says.

The minister conceded that corruption had become a familiar phenomenon in Ghana. ?It is either an accepted way of life that can?t live without or it is a canker Ghanaians must fight against. The latter is the answer.?

According to the Minister, corruption is anti-development, anti-democracy and hampers good governance, adding, the government of president Kufuor would have none of it.

The government?s request for international assistance confirms what, a source in Ghana?s intelligence outfit told the Heritage early this year that they were collaborating with their counterparts abroad in trailing multi-million dollar foreign accounts of functionaries and associates of ex-public officials.

?Very soon, the identities of those ex-public officials who claim to be poor but have stashed away millions of dollars, obtained through corrupt means, in foreign bank counts will be unmasked for Ghanaians to see,? the source said.

However, the recovery of funds illegally taken by members of government, as the Sani Abacha case demonstrates, shows that it will have to go through a number of stages.

First, evidence has to be gathered and the initiation of prosecution of such officials, will not only facilitate the granting of mutual legal assistance, but may also increase the scope of the assistance that can be granted e.g. to override bank secrecy laws in other jurisdictions.

The mutual legal assistance route can be very effective, but can also be a long and tortuous process. The case of the Nigerian dictator reveals that civil remedies can also be used as a powerful weapon to hit directly against the perpetrators of corruption. So far, some courts abroad have proven supportive of such efforts.