US, Ghana sign deal * To train Ghanaians in prosecution of organised crime

Page 31: Daily Graphic, February 24. 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
GHANA has secured the services of a US prosecutor to train Ghanaian prosecutors in the prosecution of organised and sophisticated crime cases in the country.
The US prosecutor, who is expected to spend six to nine months in the country, will work with Ghanaian judicial officials to investigate organised crime cases associated with narcotics and money laundering.
While in the country, the US prosecutor will also assist investigators to deal with leaders of drug trafficking organisations operating in Ghana and help secure their conviction.
At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to seal the deal between Ghana and the United States of America in Accra yesterday, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, conceded that the state had not been successful in the prosecution of such serious and sophisticated crimes due to the lack of capacity of prosecutors to appreciate the enormity of the crimes.
She said it was in view of such challenges that the government appreciated the gesture of the US Government to support Ghanaian prosecutors and investigators in dealing with such crimes.
She said it was in line with the government’s commitment to fighting sophisticated crimes that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was to be migrated to an Economic and Organised Crime Agency.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu said the bill to facilitate the migration was expected to be passed by the current session of Parliament and would expand the responsibilities of the SFO under the Economic and Organised Crime Agency.
She said the Economic and Organised Crime Agency, when established, would monitor, investigate and, on the authority of the Attorney-General, prosecute offences that involved serious financial or economic loss to the country, money laundering, human trafficking, and cyber crimes, computer-related fraud.
It would also be empowered to recover the proceeds of crime and to provide for related matters.
She announced that the board of Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre would also be inaugurated soon, while the Narcotics Control Board was also being refitted to harmonise the work of all the agencies to ensure co-operation and collaboration in their work.
She said joint teams would also be instituted to facilitate investigations so that all facets of cases were dealt with.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, therefore, appealed to other donor agencies to support the Attorney-General’s Department in capacity building programmes to enable state prosecutors to achieve success.
Responding to concerns about low remuneration and high turnover of prosecutors, the Minister said a committee was almost through with a package which would keep personnel at post.
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Donald Teitelbaum, who signed the MoU on behalf of the US Government, said the co-operation between the US and Ghana to stem the flow of illegal drugs would result in a safer and more secure Ghana.
He said both the US and Ghana were vigorously fighting against narcotic traffickers who were using Ghana as a transit corridor.
He noted that Ghana and the US shared a number of transnational problems and, therefore, required transnational solutions so that the two countries and the rest of the world would benefit.