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Former Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo is advising the public to desist from hasty conclusions and tread cautiously with regard to Cecilia Dapaah’s case.
According to Mr Domelevo, investigations are still underway therefore, there is a possibility that subsequent discoveries made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) could “mitigate” some discoveries that have been currently released into the public domain through the OSP’s court process.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, the former Auditor General said,“From my point of view, the details are out too early. I wish these details would have come out when the prosecution has started. Now they are doing an investigation. Even the investigation has not ended and all this information is out.”
Although he stated that it was good that the OSP is keeping the populace abreast with any new developments, he emphasised that it will be best for any Ghanaian to exercise caution with the case, in order to prevent contempt of court and other legal violations.
He also suggested that the law establishing the office could have been crafted such that the Special Prosecutor could keep some details of any investigation confidential until any prosecution officially commences.
“He [OSP] may come across other evidence which may even erase or mitigate the earlier one. Hence his final position, going to court may be different. So I was thinking if that could not be done,” Mr Domelevo explained.
Accordingly, Mr Domelevo highlighted that the Special Prosecutor’s Office is a new institution that lacks institutional memory or precedents to follow.
He stated that considering the novice status of the office, the OSP is bound to make some mistakes in the dispensation of his duties, and asked that Ghanaians to pardon those mistakes.
Mr Domelevo also urged Ghanaians to give the OSP a “breathing space” to allow him to dispense his duties.
The former Auditor General also blamed the ineffectiveness of the assets declaration regime for the seemingly back-and-forth that the OSP is facing in his quest to investigate the Cecilia Dapaah case.
According to Mr Domelevo, had the assets declaration been effective, it would have helped the OSP conduct a smooth investigation.
“If the [Assets] declaration was properly done and verified, I think some of the claims date as far back as 2005 or 2003. Maybe that’s when she was in the previous NPP administration. So we would have gone to see whether those things were declared and properly verified and existed and it would have helped the investigation.
“So it would have been a public record. We would have all known that since those days, she had these things and there’s nothing new to talk about it,” he emphasised.
Mr Domelevo therefore urged that a lifestyle audit for public office holders be administered to serve as a pre-emptive measure to check and hold public officers accountable for their lifestyles.
Mr Domelevo’s comment comes after latest court documents filed by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) revealed that a bank account belonging to the deceased brother of former Sanitation Minister, has been actively sending money to the former Minister.
Exclusive copies of documents secured by JoyNews and filed in court by the Office of the Special Prosecutor also disclosed that the former Minister allegedly has millions of cedis, the source of which the OSP says she could not prove.
Cecilia Dapaah’s dead brother’s account still sending money to former Minister – OSP alleges
This is the latest in an attempt by the Office to confirm the seizure of suspected tainted properties belonging to Madam Dapaah.
