EOCO moves to fight financial, related crimes - Seeks partnership with Cyber Security Authority
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is seeking a stronger partnership with the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) to swiftly prevent and fight financial and related crimes in the country.
As part of the move to deepen the collaboration, a six-member EOCO delegation, led by its Executive Director, COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, last Tuesday, paid a working visit to engage officials of the CSA on ways to share information to help fight organised crime.
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The acting Director-General of the CSA, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, received the EOCO delegation.
The EOCO also plans to hold discussions with officials of the National Communications Authority (NCA), the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Registrar General's Department and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to further improve information sharing channels among the agencies.
EOCO’s mandate
Addressing the meeting in Accra, COP Addo-Danquah observed that the EOCO was mandated to investigate and work with the Office of the Attorney General to prosecute serious offences involving prohibited cyber activities.
According to her, section 13 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) also establishes the Joint Cybersecurity Committee (JCC) of which EOCO is a member.
“Because when you look at the composition of the committee, most of the law enforcement agencies are also members and so our visit here is for us to appreciate and understand the operations of the authority and also to collaborate on how best we can work together for the two institutions to achieve their mandate,” she said.
She said the two institutions needed to collaborate to help build the capacity of their staff.
“We are also here to see how best we can work together to achieve our mandate.
“We need to work together so that we can build a formidable nation where prohibited cyber activities will be a thing of the past,” she added.
Legal framework
For his part, Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the JCC provided the legal framework for cooperation among state agencies and also with non-state actors to respond to cybersecurity challenges.
“Also, the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804), mandates your institution to deal with organised crime and as you are aware, most organised crimes are becoming cyber-enabled and, therefore, the EOCO has a responsibility to build capacity in the area of cybercrime investigations and digital forensics to be able to effectively deliver on this critical law enforcement mandate.
“Following the passage of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) was formally launched on October 1, 2021 by the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful,” he said.
Support for law enforcement
The director-general said the authority had a mandate to regulate cybersecurity activities and promote the development of cybersecurity in the country among others.
He said as a regulatory body, the CSA had a role to support law enforcement and security agencies to carry out their legal mandates in addressing cybercrime and cybersecurity challenges.
“We are open to sharing ideas and expertise and we are confident that your expertise and the experience you bring to this job will be very instrumental in the fight against cybercrime in Ghana,” he added.