My biggest disappointment is the AG - Domelevo on Cecilia Dapaah case

Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, has shared his disappointment with Attorney General Godfred Dame regarding the handling of allegations against former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah.

He said he believes that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), the institutions leading the investigations, should have provided the public with details about the probe to maintain credibility.

Domelevo asserted that the AG, given his constitutional mandate, ought to have facilitated cooperation between these institutions, offering necessary support rather than making statements that could detract from the probe's integrity.

In an interview with JoyNews and monitored by GhanaWeb, Domelevo remarked that halting the case against the former sanitation minister could negatively impact public confidence in state institutions.

“My biggest disappointment comes from the Attorney General. By virtue of the constitutional mandate he has, more or less all these institutions fall under him. Instead of him writing a letter to say you didn't get information from this person, so discontinue, I thought he should have called the OSP and called Madam Tiwa and said, 'Look, guys, you are working in the public interest. What information do you need from OSP? What stops you from providing this information'

"I don't think the investigation done by OSP was paid for with money from their pockets. It was public funds, and they were doing the investigations in the public interest. So, whatever information is available to them that can aid EOCO in doing their work, I think they should have made that available. I don't think the non-availability or the non-release of that information to EOCO should be grounds to say that because of that, we are discontinuing the case," he said.

Background:

Cecilia Dapaah is currently under investigation by the OSP for corruption and corruption-related offences after two of her house helps were charged for stealing more than $1 million, €300,000 in cash and other valuable items from her residence at Abelemkpe.

The OSP, for a second time, froze the accounts of the embattled former minister effective September 5, 2023, after an Accra High Court directed the office to unfreeze the accounts and investments of the former minister, Cecilia Dapaah, and return her seized monies, after an initial freeze order.

GhanaWeb, on August 9, 2023, reported that the embattled former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah’s assets and bank accounts containing millions of dollars and cedis had been frozen by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

On October 16, 2023, the OSP revoked the freeze order on 5 of the bank accounts belonging to Cecilia Dapaah.

The office indicated that although it has released 5 of the bank accounts, the freezing order is still in force and effect in respect of the other bank accounts and financial assets of the embattled former minister.

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