Tema-Ghana, Aug. 31, – In order to help the fight against corruption, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International, has advocated for the burden of proof in criminal cases involving corruption to be placed on the shoulders of the accused.
The burden of proof is now on the complainant and the prosecution rather than the accused under the different criminal and corruption statutes of Ghana.
However, Mr. Michael Boadi, the Fundraising Manager of GII, asserted that Ghana must place the onus of proof in cases of corruption on the accused, just as it does in other nations, and that Ghana lacks the necessary legislation governing illicit financial transactions.
He said this when speaking on the theme; “The fight against corruption in the Fourth Republic: A Mirage or Reality.”
Mr Boadi stated that even though Ghana has ratified a number of international laws on corruption, including the United Nations Conventions Against Corruption (UNCAC), the country was yet to domestic some of its provisions to make the fight against corruption solid.
Other global corruption commitment Ghana has signed on to are the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCAC), UN Declaration Against Corruption and Bribery in the International Commercial Transactions, and the International Code of Conduct for Public Officials, among others.
“It is not enough to ratify the convention, you must operationalize it and make it functional in your country; it is worrying that even though Ghana has ratified the UNCAC, not all of its regulations are functioning in Ghana since we don’t have the domestic laws to implement them,” he stated.
“Ratifying the convention is only the first step; your nation must next operationalize it and make it work. Even though Ghana has ratified the UNCAC, it is concerning that not all of its rules are in effect there because we lack the domestic laws necessary to put them into effect, the official said.
He explained that if the burden of proof were reversed, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, a former minister of sanitation and water resources, would be required to prove the source of the money rather than the other way around in the current investigations being conducted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
If caution was not used, he warned, Madam Dapaah would escape prosecution for a suspected corruption infraction unpunished if the OSP was unable to establish her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The GII Fundraising Manager explained that corruption cases were predicate offences and therefore very difficult to prove unlike other ordinary criminal acts, therefore the need for the laws of Ghana to make the accused to explain his or her unexplained wealth.
