Activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has criticised investigative practices in Ghana’s handling of white-collar crime, saying many prosecutions rely too heavily on caution statements instead of independently verified evidence.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Barker-Vormawor recounted attending a meeting involving investigators and prosecutors, where he became concerned about the standard of investigative work.
“I walked away and said, this country is in big trouble,” he said.
He cited an example in which investigators accepted a suspect’s claim of being out of the country without independently verifying it, despite having access to immigration records.
“The investigator said the person stated he was out of the country. You have access to the airports, yet you have done nothing beyond taking caution statements,” he said.
According to Barker-Vormawor, this reflects a broader weakness in the investigation of financial and corruption-related offences.
“The vast majority of our prosecutions end only at statements taken, and that’s it. That’s how cases are established,” he stated.
He urged law enforcement agencies to strengthen evidence gathering and verification processes, arguing that improving investigative capacity is essential to securing successful prosecutions in complex corruption cases.
