Tension In EOCO

Tension is gradually brewing at the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) as some workers are up in arms against the Executive Director, Kwaku Mortey Akpadzi, who they accused of giving preferential treatment to his family members. The workers have accused Mr. Akpadzi of giving certain portfolios to his family members. That practice, according to the livid workers violates Act 804 of 2010 by aligning an agency such as EOCO [a division under the Public Service] to the security services. A document sighted by this paper written by some aggrieved EOCO staff titled: �The Rot within the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO,)� alleged that Mr. Akpadzi and Deputy Executive Director, Justice Tsar, who are from the Awudome Traditional Area have skilfully and successfully built an �empire� at EOCO and have set themselves as despotic rulers. �Mortey and Tsar are despotic rulers, demigods and dictators who rule EOCO like the way a personal business is run. The fate of every staff is in their hands and they treat them the way they like. People who are not their family members and friends are constantly afraid of them as they [Messrs Apkadzi and Tsar] have power to do anything at all,� the document stated. The document also alleged that Mr. Akpadzi is not on top of his job and for that matter hands over 90 per cent of the day-to-day running of the office to Justice Tsar. According to the document, Mr. Akpadzi has rendered the EOCO board useless with his actions, taking virtually all control over the governing board. �The governing board has no control at all,� the leaked document noted. The document also revealed that since September 2009, Justice Tsar acted as both deputy Executive Director in charge of Intelligence and Administration, and as a result has messed up EOCO since he was not a professional administrator. Meanwhile, several cries to get a professional and qualified administrator has fell on deaf ears until March 2013, when Justice Tsar brought one Kelvin Amegbor, who they described as a �criminal� who was dismissed from the military. �He is just a figure head who Tsar is hiding behind to execute his agenda at EOCO,� the aggrieved workers claimed. However, this paper�s investigations to authenticate the allegations corroborated the content of the documents [based on further interview with some staff and senior managers of EOCO]. It was clear that the allegations as stated in the document were not far from the truth. According to some staff who spoke to this paper on condition of anonymity, it was time for government to look into the administration of EOCO. Today wants to assure that Ghanaian public that there are more damning things about the Mortey Akpadzi administration which will be brought to the fore in our subsequent editions.