{"id":338750,"date":"2017-07-24T11:10:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T11:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=338750"},"modified":"2017-07-24T11:10:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T11:10:57","slug":"nana-addo-should-give-eoco-power-to-fully-probe-ec-kojo-asante","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/nana-addo-should-give-eoco-power-to-fully-probe-ec-kojo-asante\/","title":{"rendered":"Nana Addo should empower EOCO to fully probe EC &#8211; Kojo Asante"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Head of Programs at the Center for Democratic Governance (CDD), Kojo Asante, believes a full-scale investigation of the\u00a0Electoral Commission&#8217;s activities is in order to unravel the allegations of financial malfeasance being thrown about by key players within the commission.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the <strong>Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong>, Mr. Asante explained that, a more comprehensive probe could be realized if President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was petitioned by some staff of the EC, expands the remit of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;s0LPxCdCinE3Pemypso5opDO7VuWQrzm&#8221;]EOCO&#8217;s mandate allows it to monitor and investigate economic and organised crimes involving serious financial or economic loss to the state, and on the authority of the Attorney General, prosecute these offences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This petition was to trigger the removal of\u00a0Mrs.\u00a0Charlotte Osei, but I think the President, having received the response [from Charlotte Osei], should basically expand the remit of EOCO to go substantially into all the matters and allegations that have been\u00a0raised\u00a0to establish for a fact what exactly has happened; whether abuses of power have happened,\u00a0whether\u00a0financial\u00a0mismanagement\u00a0has happened, whether\u00a0allegations\u00a0of corruption can be established prima facie. Based on this, the president can make some recommendations on whether he\u00a0is\u00a0going to move the process forward or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some organisations have proposed the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms to mediate the problems at the EC and ensure a truce. But Mr. Asante noted that, the hierarchy of the EC was now implicated and tainted by the allegations of corruption and financial malfeasance thus any intervention in the EC&#8217;s affairs must be angled towards unraveling the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way it is, if you don\u2019t isolate the allegations of criminality and so on and just move quickly to calm things down and let everything get along, you would really miss the opportunity of trying to resolve what appears to be serious challenges with corporate governance at the EC&#8230; It\u00a0would\u00a0also\u00a0afford\u00a0the\u00a0individuals\u00a0the\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to \u201cfully\u00a0exonerate themselves in one way or the other because their reputations\u00a0are\u00a0also on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the petition from the employees, EOCO, had been interrogating the EC&#8217;s Director of Finance,\u00a0and two other officials over their alleged involvement in the loss of GHc480,000 from the Commission\u2019s Staff Endowment Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Official communication between the EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, and\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Asamaoh, later indicated that he was indeed\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/10\/ec-ghc480000-scandal-documents-reveal-finance-director-wasnt-at-post\/\">not at<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0post\u00a0when the money went missing from the Commission\u2019s Staff Endowment Fund.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The EC tensions came to the fore after some employees of commission\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/19\/ec-staff-petition-nana-addo-to-sack-charlotte-osei\/\">petitioned<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0President Akufo-Addo to dismiss Charlotte Osei for\u00a0alleged financial malfeasance.<\/p>\n<p>Among the allegations centred around financial malfeasance, the aggrieved employees claimed that Mrs. Osei unilaterally awarded a GHc 3.9 million contract for work on an office complex without consulting the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The employees also said Mrs. Osei engaged in cronyism by awarding another contract to the tune of $14,310,961\u00a0to associates for the construction of prefabricated District offices.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_265405\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-265405\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-265405\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_8156.jpg\" alt=\"Charlotte Osei, EC Chairperson\" width=\"600\" height=\"373\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-265405\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlotte Osei, EC Chairperson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mrs.\u00a0Osei\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/23\/amadu-sulley-illegally-took-ghc-6m-from-parties-charlotte-osei\/\">rubbished the allegations<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in a detailed response to the employees and fired some accusations of her own,\u00a0alleging that a Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations at the EC, Amadu Sulley, milked some GHc 6 million from political parties without informing the Commission\u2019s Finance Department.<\/p>\n<p>She said the political party primaries were treated as a private commercial project by Amadu Sulley, noting that funds were paid directly into the personal accounts of key staff for functions to be performed at the primaries.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs.\u00a0Osei also said she will order investigations into the conduct of Amadu Sulley and other Commissioners believed to be engaged in malpractices.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Head of Programs at the Center for Democratic Governance (CDD), Kojo Asante, believes a full-scale investigation of the\u00a0Electoral Commission&#8217;s activities is in order to unravel the allegations of financial malfeasance being thrown about by key players within the commission. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Asante explained that, a more comprehensive probe could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[9572,3793,3],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nana Addo should empower EOCO to fully probe EC - Kojo Asante - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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