‘People make wild allegations but chicken out when asked for evidence’ – EOCO boss on fight against corruption

 

The Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO), Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah has challenged persons who allege corruption to back it with evidence.

She said it is not enough to make wild allegations of corruption without evidence.

“One thing that we should always remember is that when you are prosecuting corruption, it is not about what you think, it is about the evidence that you have. If you don’t have evidence, you don’t have a case. That is what the public must understand. People make wild allegations but when it comes to evidence, they chicken out,“ she said in an exclusive interview with 3News’ Beatrice Adu on January 29 at a CDD event Accra.

She was answering questions on the money laundering case referred to her outfit by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the expose by The Fourth Estate on the contract awarded to Strategic Mobilisation by the Ghana Revenue Authority for revenue assurances in the downstream petroleum sector.

According to her, the canker permeates through the fabric of society, hence the need for all hands-on deck with regard to the fight against it.

“I am concerned, everybody should be concerned. What do we have to do? We must all put our hands together and we must fight whatever is fighting us. That is what I can say. The point is that, like the OSP said, if we really need to fight it, then everybody must fight. I have somebody who asked me for support to pay school fees or something.

Then the moment I said I could help, she called me back to say that I should not put it on her MoMo because she is owing MTN, can you imagine. And I did. So, these are small-small things that we think they don’t matter, but they do. It starts from small-small things and become big,” she stated.

“So, everybody must have a change of attitude, mindset, that this is where we are and this is where we want to go. And we must all play a role in the fight against corruption. One person cannot do it. And it’s not about leadership. It’s about everybody playing a role. Whatever is expected you, you do it, whatever is expected of me, I do it. Whatever is expected of institutions, they do it,” Madam Tiwaa stressed.

Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah acknowledged receipt of the docket on Cecilia Dapaah, former Sanitation Minister, in respect of the alleged money laundering case her.

She said although the Office of the Special Prosecutor has formally submitted the docket to her outfit, she is yet to review it.

“I have that, and we are now reviewing, at the appropriate time, we will speak about it. I am not well briefed about the docket, so I don’t want to make any comment on it until we review it. The most important thing is that he has handed over, I don’t have any more thing to add,” she explained.

Asked if she has heard about the story regarding the contract awarded by the Ghana Revenue Authority to Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) she said, “you see, I don’t talk about thinks that I am not well briefed. If you want to talk to me about other things, fine but not on that.”
On what she makes of criticisms that her outfit is not being proactive in the fight Against corruption, the Commissioner of Police said, “We take it in good faith and we always learn. When somebody says you should have done it this way, you look at what the person is telling you. And when you think that is what you should have done, you learn from it and adjust your strategy and next time you become a better person.”

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