CHRAJ, GRA must take over investigations against Cecilia Dapaah – Vitus Azeem

Anti-corruption campaigner Vitus Azeem has said the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) must investigate the money laundering accusations against Cecilia Dapaah.

The Office of the Attorney General (AG) and Ministry of Justice have said there is no basis for the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) to conduct money laundering investigations into the affairs of former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah.

The Special Prosecutor (OSP) had earlier this year dropped charges against the former minister and referred the matter to EOCO for money laundering investigations.

But, after studying the documents submitted to it by EOCO, the office of the AG has since advised against money laundering investigations into the matter by EOCO.

Commenting on the development on Morning Starr with Francis Abban on Thursday, Mr. Azeem said the matter should not be allowed to end just like that.

“In the very beginning, I even said that CHRAJ was also the appropriate body to do the investigation in terms of looking at her asset declaration to establish if these monies were acquired legally and from genuine employment or not. They have to establish how the money was acquired.

“So the matter shouldn’t end there if EOCO thinks that it cannot proceed; even if the Attorney General thinks that EOCO cannot proceed, I think that the matter should go to CHRAJ, and the matter should also go to GRA to establish if the lady was doing a genuine business and earned the money, and whether tax was paid. So there are still two institutions that can take up this matter and not allow it to just end,” Mr. Azeem said.