SFO gets new boss
Gilbert Boyefio
06/10/2006
The Serious Fraud Office has finally appointed its first substantive executive director since it was ushered into being by Act 466 in 1993.
Francis N A Sowah, 54, a lawyer with a PhD in International Economic Law, was appointed on Tuesday, October 3. His swearing-in is expected to take place next Monday.
He replaces Theopilus Cudjoe, who has been asked to proceed on leave, according to sources close to the Public Service Commission.
Mr Cudjoe served in an acting position for a record five years.
The delay in appointing a substantive boss for the SFO, which investigates and prosecutes white collar crimes, had been criticised as not being helpful to the government's anti-corruption drive.
The new executive director comes to the job with a rich CV of global experience since he completed the University of Ghana in 1976 and went on to complete his doctorate in 1982 at the London School of Economics, University of London, UK.
From April 2006, he has served as Special Advisor to the Minister of Communications, Mike Oquaye and the project co-ordinator to the Ministry on the eGhana Project of the World Bank.
Before then, he served from April 2005 as Special Advisor to the then Minister of Energy. Dr Sowah played an instrumental role in the deregulation of the petroleum sector and the ongoing reforms of the power sector.
His legal experience spans teaching, research, practice and adjudication. His specific areas of expertise include contracts, commercial transactions, administrative law, policy and regulatory frameworks, criminal law and jurisprudence.
He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1991, operating his own law firm in New York for 8 years until 2003. He joined the Ghana Bar in 2002.
Before going into private practice in 1995, Dr Sowah was an adjudicator in Newark, State of New Jersey, for four years, working for the Department of Labour there.
Dr Sowah has also served as a law lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, University of Benin, Nigeria and University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.
His appointment comes at a time corruption is said to have reduced in Ghana. The Auditor-General, Edward Dua Agyeman, yesterday told a visiting parliamentary team form Tanzania that the introduction of the Public Procurement Act and the Financial Administration Account, as well as the Inter-Audit Agency Act, has resulted in the reduction of corruption in the country.
Dr Sowah could not have had a more auspicious beginning.
06/10/2006
The Serious Fraud Office has finally appointed its first substantive executive director since it was ushered into being by Act 466 in 1993.
Francis N A Sowah, 54, a lawyer with a PhD in International Economic Law, was appointed on Tuesday, October 3. His swearing-in is expected to take place next Monday.
He replaces Theopilus Cudjoe, who has been asked to proceed on leave, according to sources close to the Public Service Commission.
Mr Cudjoe served in an acting position for a record five years.
The delay in appointing a substantive boss for the SFO, which investigates and prosecutes white collar crimes, had been criticised as not being helpful to the government's anti-corruption drive.
The new executive director comes to the job with a rich CV of global experience since he completed the University of Ghana in 1976 and went on to complete his doctorate in 1982 at the London School of Economics, University of London, UK.
From April 2006, he has served as Special Advisor to the Minister of Communications, Mike Oquaye and the project co-ordinator to the Ministry on the eGhana Project of the World Bank.
Before then, he served from April 2005 as Special Advisor to the then Minister of Energy. Dr Sowah played an instrumental role in the deregulation of the petroleum sector and the ongoing reforms of the power sector.
His legal experience spans teaching, research, practice and adjudication. His specific areas of expertise include contracts, commercial transactions, administrative law, policy and regulatory frameworks, criminal law and jurisprudence.
He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1991, operating his own law firm in New York for 8 years until 2003. He joined the Ghana Bar in 2002.
Before going into private practice in 1995, Dr Sowah was an adjudicator in Newark, State of New Jersey, for four years, working for the Department of Labour there.
Dr Sowah has also served as a law lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, University of Benin, Nigeria and University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.
His appointment comes at a time corruption is said to have reduced in Ghana. The Auditor-General, Edward Dua Agyeman, yesterday told a visiting parliamentary team form Tanzania that the introduction of the Public Procurement Act and the Financial Administration Account, as well as the Inter-Audit Agency Act, has resulted in the reduction of corruption in the country.
Dr Sowah could not have had a more auspicious beginning.
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