Former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo has explained his reasons for joining the petition to Parliament regarding the handling of the former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah’s case.

“It looks like state institutions which have been mandated to protect the public purse or fight against graft are disabled or unable to perform their functions and that to me is disturbing,” he told Emefa Apawu on The Probe on Sunday.

He said what is worrying for him is that before Cecilia Dapaah resigned, President Akufo-Addo in accepting her letter predicted that her integrity would be fully restored after the investigation.

“It looks like something is being cooked…something fishy is happening,” he said.

Mr Domelevo said if it were any ordinary person whose house such monies were found, they would have been growing through hell courtesy of the security agencies.

“We have not been believing the story we have been hearing so far. So we want to hear the story behind the story and we think that parliament instituting a probe will give us a better idea about what happened,” he said.

He emphasised that such a probe will also bring to the fore whether it is money laundering or a corruption issue, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) are not interested in getting to the bottom of the matter.

“As the OSP did, one would have expected that they [EOCO] don’t just review a file and come and tell us they are unable to make head or tail of the case. I thought they would have done some investigation and after that, they can tell Ghanaians they did not find anything,” he said.

Mr Domelevo pointed out that two issues need serious consideration.

He explained that anyone who is a public officer at Madam Dapaah’s level receives an appropriation from the consolidated fund as a result of which Article 286 of the constitution requires that the officer declares his/her assets and liabilities before assuming office.

“Funds can be co-mingled at any time so the law requires that you declare your assets before you come into office, after every four years you declare again, and when you are leaving office, you do same.

“All these must be looked at to see if she declared something like this and if is there justification in that quantum of money which was found. All these questions must be answered,” Mr Domelevo said.

According to him, there was an attempt to get the asset declaration from the Auditor General’s office and it failed.

“EOCO should have taken the matter to the court for the court to say demand the asset declared by Madam Dapaah at each stage she served the state to see if she has evidence of the money in her declaration. It will ask about the difference between what you declared and what you have now, how did you make it?

Secondly, regarding the issue of no predicate offence leading to money laundering, he said “That is the liar EOCO wants us to believe.”

Background

The Office of the Attorney-General (AG) in a letter addressed to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), dated April 25, 2024, advised EOCO to not investigate suspected money laundering in connection with certain monies found at the private residences of Mrs Cecilia Dapaah.

It said this followed a “request for directions” ostensibly made to the AG by EOCO following EOCO’s receipt of a referral from the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) concerning Mrs Dapaah’s case.  

The AG said the referral from the OSP had noted that while the OSP’s investigations had “identified strong indications of suspected money laundering and structuring,” such matters fell outside the OSP’s statutory mandate but were well within the EOCO’s mandate, hence the referral.