The Executive Director of Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), Commissioner of Police (COP) Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has noted that the fight against economic crime would be difficult to accomplish without effective information.
“Every crime prevention, crime investigation, crime detection depends on the information that we have. Those people who do bad things, they live with us. We attend church with them; we go to market with them. Some of them we know very well. The public must give such information to either EOCO or police or to any law enforcement agency so that we all work together and ensure that we get to them and stop them from doing it in the first place,” she said.
Maame Tiwaa was speaking during a day’s official working visit to the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua on Friday, last week. The visit to the region was the first since she was appointed by President Akufo-Addo on January 5, 2022.
She paid a courtesy call on the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Acheampong, Head/Tax Payers Service Centre of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr Okine, National Investigation Bureau (NIB) Regional Commander and others.
COP Maame Yaa Tiwaah Addo-Danquah expressed her appreciation and gratitude for the massive support she received from the Ghana Police Service and other institutions since her appointment.
Receiving Maame Tiwaa and her entourage to his office, the Eastern Regional Minister congratulated her on her new appointment and for being the first female Executive Director of EOCO.
Speaking to the media after a closed-door meeting, Seth Acheampong indicated that no single individual or institution can achieve a set goal unless they work together as a team.
He added that working together would help each institution achieve its mandate.He promised the Executive Director of EOCO of his readiness to assist the Eastern Regional Office – EOCO in any endeavour.
He also expressed his gratitude to MaameTiwaa and her entourage for the visit and that it will go a long way to deepen and sustain the relationship between their offices.
The Eastern Regional Director of EOCO, Elizabeth Amonoowa Buckman on her part reiterated their commitment towards making Ghana a safe haven for investors and the business community.
According to her, EOCO could only carry out its duty of crime investigation, prosecution and prevention if it has public support.She told the media that receiving crucial information about criminal intents, plans, and activities was enough to prevent them from committing crimes. The Office has the authority of the Attorney General to prosecute economic and organized crimes cases.
With offices in the regional capitals, members of the public can report crime by showing up physically at the offices or online.
“The mandate of EOCO is very broad – not only to detect, prevent and confiscate the proceeds of crime into government coffers but on the advice of the Attorney General can prosecute the offender,” she said.
“As part of our effort to meet our set target for the year 2022, small and medium shop owners are being educated on the need to pay personal income tax and corporate tax for more development by the government. The Eastern Regional Office of EOCO would continue to move out more to ensure that all personal and corporate tax liabilities are paid to GRA. The tax monitoring exercise on hostels, small and medium shops has indeed yielded a positive result,” she stated.
