The Attorney General, Hon. Gloria Akufo in briefing Parliament on the performance of the Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for the year 2019 stated that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has recovered a total amount of GHC2,655,768,69m which are proceeds of crime to the State.
This was revealed at the floor of Parliament when Hon. Gloria Akufo was moving a motion for the approval of GHC136,627,625 for the services of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department for the year 2020.
According to Hon. Akufo, from January – September 2019 the EOCO made a direct recovery of GHC1,368,806.45 into the Consolidated Fund while the remaining GHC1,286,962.24 was recovered for other relevant state institutions.
She further stated that during the period under review, the EOCO investigated about 250 cases, thirty(30) of which are still under various stages of prosecution with one conviction and one confiscation to the State.
Hon. Ben Abdallah Banda, the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in reading the Committee’s report, pleaded with the Ministry of Finance to provide additional funds to EOCO to furnish its new forensic laboratory and set up a fully functional tracking unit to improve on its operations.