The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) is to receive a grant worth GH10 million from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to support the office’s activities and inquiries.
As a result, the central bank and the investigative body yesterday, August 15, 2022, in Accra signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to coordinate the latter’s use of the fund.
Dr. Ernest Addison, the governor of the BoG, signed on behalf of the bank, while Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, the executive director of EOCO, signed on behalf of the organization.
Two tranches will be used to distribute the funds.
The first tranche of GH5 million is to be distributed right once to support EOCO’s efforts, particularly concerning the financial clean-up regulations.
Bases of assistance
The majority of the funds, according to Dr. Addison, will be used to look into cases involving the financial sector clean-up operation, which began in 2017 and ended in 2020 and saw the collapse of eight banks, 23 savings and loans organizations, and more than 400 specialized deposit-taking institutions (SDIs).
He claimed that the exercise highlighted the crucial part played by EOCO in identifying financial crimes and ensuring that offenders were held accountable.
According to him, as part of the reforms, the central bank named receivers for the failing institutions and gave them the responsibility of securing the assets of the defunct businesses, liquidating them to pay off debts, and identifying instances of fraud that needed further investigation for possible prosecution and other accountability procedures.
The Governor stated, among other things, that the receivership process discovered that the majority of directors had neglected their fiduciary duties to clients and other stakeholders.
He claimed that while some of the directors were unable to account for what occurred in their organizations, others were unable to account for how the monies from depositors were used.
He claimed that the complexity of the misconduct necessitated the hiring of a professional team of investigators to
help sort out the situation and deal with it.
He said that 100 properties were given to EOCO for ownership research by the receiver of the specialized deposit-taking banks.
According to him, the assets included landed properties linked to MFIs that were subject to the exercise.
According to him, the EOCO investigations resulted in the issuing and receipt of 88 freezing orders, enabling thorough inquiries into suspects’ alleged activities.
Dr. Addison continued by saying that EOCO’s help also enabled the discovery and recovery of traceable investments worth GHC 160 million.
Additionally, related party transactions totaling roughly GH1.09 billion were sent to EOCO for additional examination.
He claimed that EOCO conducted investigations into 11 dockets and forwarded them to the Attorney-Office General’s for advice and potential prosecution.
He expressed the hope that grant funding would give EOCO more authority to carry out specific investigations that
might result in the prosecution of offenders.
Commendation
The EOCO Executive Director thanked the central bank for the gesture and promised to see to it that the funds were used wisely.
She argued that EOCO needs to be given more authority to stop the Commission of Economic and Organized Crimes and named tax evasion and noncompliance as two issues the office could help with adequate funding.
