Gh¢9.6bn Lost To Corruption—Corruption Watch, EOCO Drop Documentary

Corruption Watch Ghana in collaboration with the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) has launched a documentary on assets recovery.

The 15-minute documentary titled: “Stolen Money Recovered,” features the Economic and Organized Crime Office and gives a narration of recovery of stolen assets to the state in addition to the challenges faced.

It exposes some of the challenges anti-corruption agencies and the security services face in retrieving stolen funds to include the following; delays in asset identification and ownership; the challenge of investigators identifying assets and the failure of prosecutors to freeze assets during the trial and prior to sentencing.

A statement issued by the NGO said: "The “Stolen Money Recovered” documentary is, therefore, a tool that the producers, Corruption Watch, in particular, have targeted to raise public awareness about asset recovery and management in Ghana."

Analysis of the top five (5) cases featured on Corruption Watch show on Joy FM between November 2017 to December 2018 alone shows that about GHC 9.6 billion has been alleged to have been lost.

Through the documentary, Corruption Watch Ghana and EOCO express the need for citizens to assist relevant authorities to retrieve stolen funds.

It also seeks to influence policymakers, anti-corruption agencies, law-enforcement agencies, the judicial system, and all key stakeholders to fully implement legislation and measures that would help in the recovery of stolen funds and properties to the state.

The documentary was developed around two major asset recovery cases – the Morris Asola Fadola case and the Ghana Youth Employment Entrepreneurship Development Agency (GYEEDA) case.

About Asset Recovery

Asset recovery is the practice of retrieving proceeds from crime or wealth illegally acquired at the expense of the state. It helps ensure that the state is able to recover lost or misappropriated public funds and serves as a deterrent to those who acquire wealth and property through illegal means.

As a tool for fighting corruption and crime, Asset recovery has gained more currency across the world due to the shift from custodial sentencing to denying criminals of the proceeds from their corrupt activities. It is intended to serve as a disincentive for corrupt people. Asset recovery, therefore, remains one of the key and innovative tools in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) for fighting corruption.

Ghana has made several legal provisions for the regulation of asset recovery and management regime. The Police, for instance, can seize assets under the Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement, and Sanctions) Law, 1990. The laws setting up the Economic and Organized Crime Office EOCO Act, 2010 (Act 804) and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008 (Act 749), as amended allow the State to freeze, seize, confiscate and forfeit assets of corrupt people. The newly established Office of the Special Prosecutor, under the OSP Act, (Act 959) and specifically, the OSP (Operations) Regulations 2018 has an even extended mandate to manage seized, frozen or confiscated assets.