The newly appointed Ashanti Regional Director of the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) Edward Cudjoe has given assurances his office has what it takes to clamp down on miscreants and fraudsters from infiltrating the region’s brisk commercial base.
The central location of the Ashanti Region coupled with the commercial mainstay of a majority of its residents positions it as one of Ghana’s biggest trading hubs and transit points for goods from the country’s ports to other land locked regions within the middle and northern belts of Ghana as well as Ghana’s northern neighbors.
The sheer volumes of commerce, comes with it, the perennial complaints of fraud, tax evasion, dodgy deals; smuggling, and a host of other illicit business activities
Edward Cudjoe brings a wealth of expertise to his new role, with an extensive background in legal practice, financial intelligence, administration, and high-profile investigations having led a series of successful operations in Ghana’s foremost investigative body.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a media capacity building workshop held by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Mr. Cudjoe pledged to intensify efforts to combat fraud and illicit activities threatening the region’s vibrant commercial sector.
“The mandate of my office is wide; Aside Illicit Financial Flows, there are other issues relating to money laundering and terrorist financing, fraud and wider issues of Organized crime. We need to get rid of these things and bring them to their barest minimum,” he noted.
Collaboration
Edward Cudjoe disclosed that he had begun engaging interest groups and pertinent communities to forge strategic alliances to support his vision to safeguard and sanitize the business landscape of the Ashanti Region.
“With collaboration we can together have people go about their economic activity without fear of being ripped off or someone perpetrating fraud on them in the market places, in the shops and businesses they operate,” he noted.
Demystifying EOCO’s Work
The Regional EOCO Director dispelled the long held misconception about the opacity and mystery around the work of the Economic and Organized Crime Office.
He enumerated several virtual and personal avenues that the Organization has adopted to improve its transparency and public engagements underscoring the critical need for people to freely volunteer information to EOCO.
“EOCO has evolved. We have a public affairs unit and, a website. We are on social media communicating with the public, something which didn’t exist. This is how close we have come to the public so they can understand us. We give pointers, tell the public who we are looking for and what issues we are dealing with so they can also collaborate with us,” he emphasized.
MFWA TRAINING
Mr. Cudjoe facilitated an insightful session on Illicit Financial Flows exposing journalists to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and associated offenses; the legal and regulatory regimes for addressing IFFs and the growing sophistication of methodologies adopted by offenders.
The two-day training formed part of a project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to train a vanguard of journalists in Ghana to join a crucial fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) as Africa hemorrhages profusely, losing at least US$50 billion annually under disturbing circumstances.
Through a series of intensive theoretical and practical sessions; the training exposed participants to existing international organizations in the forefront of reducing illicit financial flows
The project forms part of ‘Strategic Partnership Initiative for Ghana and West Africa”, a project funded by Oxfam Ghana and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA)
Source :www.kumasimail.com /Ivan Heathcote – Fumador
