DINNER WITH GHANA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL: NARCOTICS,

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 001676

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

LAGOS FOR DEA SGAYE AND LEGAT MJOHNSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2016
TAGS: GH KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SNAR
SUBJECT: DINNER WITH GHANA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL: NARCOTICS,
CORRUPTION AND EXTRADITION ISSUES

Classified By: Ambassador Pamela E. Bridgewater for reasons 1.5 d, e.


1. (C) Summary: On July 18, Ambassador, PolChief and RSO
had dinner with Ghanaian Attorney General and Minister of
Justice Joe Ghartey, at the Minister's request. Ghartey
highlighted ministry reforms and assured us the GOG is
serious about counternarcotics. He promised to look into
updating the extradition treaty and our request to extradite
Grace Coleman. He agreed corruption was a serious problem in
Ghana. Ghartey also responded to questions about trafficking
in persons, prison conditions, and the death of Issa Mobila
in military custody. End summary.

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Reforms in the Ministry
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2. (C) Ghartey enthusiastically outlined his efforts to
reform the Attorney General's Department and Ministry of
Justice. His plans include increasing staff training and
travel, rotating employees, taking personnel on off-site
strategy sessions, empowering middle-level managers, and
trying to remove distinctions between bureaucrats and staff
lawyers. He is making physical improvements to the ministry
and upgrading computers. Ghartey hoped the resulting
improved morale would help overcome the relatively poor
salaries of ministry attorneys. He claimed that as a former
lawyer, President Kufuor has a keen interest in these
reforms, which Ghartey anticipates will result in increased
prosecutions.

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Narcotics
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3. (C) Ghartey assured Ambassador that the GOG was very
serious about combating narcotics trafficking. "Heads will
roll," he said, noting that he had recently fired an employee
because of his handling of a narcotics case. Ambassador
underscored our concern about the narcotics situation in
Ghana, noting the Colombian connection, and pointing out the
disastrous impact narcotics trafficking can have on a
country.

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Extradition Issues
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4. (SBU) Ambassador praised our excellent cooperation on
extradition issues, but highlighted our frustration with
so-far fruitless efforts to extradite Member of Parliament
Grace Coleman. PolChief underscored the seriousness of the
case against Coleman. Ghartey agreed that a Member of
Parliament should not be above the law and said he would look
into the matter. PolChief noted our interest in updating the
1931 bilateral extradition treaty. Ghartey agreed that such
an old treaty probably needed to be brought into the modern
world and said he would look into this further.

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Corruption
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5. (SBU) In response to a question from PolChief, Ghartey
explained his ministry's involvement in prosecuting
corruption cases. He stressed the importance of raising
awareness about the ills of corruption, especially at grass
roots levels. He praised the passage of several
anti-corruption laws, pointing out that a Whistleblower law
is being considered in parliament and that the GOG was
working on a Freedom of Information bill. According to
Ghartey, at this time, there is a constitutional difficulty
in naming a fully empowered head (rather than Acting
Director) of the Commission on Human Rights and Justice
(CHRAJ),which takes the lead for the GOG on fighting
corruption, because the substantive Commissioner is on
secondment overseas and has not retired.


6. (C) PolChief noted our concerns about financial crime
and scams, which Ghartey agreed was a serious problem. RSO
highlighted deficiencies in the Ghana Police Service which
foster a climate of corruption. Ghartey was hopeful an
anti-moneylaundering bill would go to parliament soon. He
said we were "preaching to the converted" on corruption
issues and he readily agreed to speak at an upcoming PAS
program on corruption. Ambassador pointed out that fighting
corruption was an important part of keeping our Millennium

Challenge Account compact with Ghana on track.

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Human Rights
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7. (U) For Ghana to move to Tier 1, the GOG must prosecute
and convict perpetrators of trafficking in persons, the
Ambassador told the minister. PolChief noted that we hope to
offer INL-funded training in the next year on TIP for judges,
prosecutors and police. PolChief also expressed concerns
about Ghana's overcrowded prisons and the large number of
prisoners on remand. Ghartey agreed that TIP was a problem.
He said the ministry is working on a study and strategy to
improve the prison problem. Ambassador asked about the
status of the case of Issa Mobila, who was found dead while
in military custody in 2004. Ghartey said the case is still
under investigation, noting that it may be difficult to
ascertain whether Mobila was killed by the military.

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Comment
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8. (C) The purpose for this dinner remains unclear.
Ghartey, a 45-year-old lawyer who was promoted from Deputy
Minister to Minister in the last Cabinet reshuffle, may have
wanted it for self-promotion. He seemed eager to project
himself (quite convincingly) as open, youthful, informal, and
progressive. The dinner was organized by the local
representative of U.S. company Kosmos Energy, who may have
wanted the dinner to promote himself as a middle man. The
Kosmos rep claimed the minister wanted an informal setting to
share frustrations and discuss U.S. assistance in capacity
training for lawyers and in fighting cybercrime and
narcotics. However, the minister did not ask for training,
never mentioned cybercrime, and only briefly discussed
narcotics. He was receptive but noncommittal on many issues
we raised.


9. (C) Given the high profile of our advocacy on narcotics
and corruption (and the growing media coverage about
narcotics),we suspect Ghartey may have used the cover of a
commercial advocacy dinner to send us a private message,
possibly on the orders of the President or someone in the
presidency, that the GOG is serious about law enforcement
reform and counternarcotics. Lending weight to this theory
is the fact that on July 19, Ghartey held a press conference
to stress the GOG's seriousness about tackling narcotics. He
stated in the event that the GOG would work to ensure those
arrested for drug offenses are denied bail until their cases
go to court. He also said the GOG was working out a legal
framework to destroy cocaine that is seized rather than
retain it as evidence. (Ambassador had earlier asked the
President to find ways to destroy evidence to reduce the
"disappearance" of drugs.) Ghartey criticized the slow pace
of narcotics trials and said the ministry had set up a
committee to review all court judgments on drug cases.
Emboffs have a meeting with the Castle next week to discuss
next steps on counternarcotics. This may confirm that
Ghartey, who has a good reputation and has risen quickly
through the ranks, is to be a key player in a revamped
counternarcotics effort.


















BRIDGEWATER