The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) says the call by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) for a non-partisan commission of inquiry to investigate government contracts and judgment debts may lead to duplication of functions.

CDD-Ghana is recommending the appointment of an independent body under Article 278 of the 1992 Constitution to carry out the exercise.

This according to CDD will help prevent possible finger-pointing incidents which usually occur on platforms provided by the State.

But Executive Director of GII, Vitus Azeem in an interview with XYZ News said he believes the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) is empowered to carry out the same function effectively.

“There is a need for a serious investigation into this whole judgment issue but with regards to who should do it, I am aware that the President asked the EOCO to investigate all judgment debts.

“They only stopped because of the Woyome issue, so to avoid duplication of functions I think that the EOCO should go ahead with the investigations”.

But the CDD explained to XYZ News that it believes an independent body of enquiry will not constitute a duplication of EOCO’s function.

Theodore Jeble, Public Affairs and Communications Officer at the CDD said there are a lot of perceptions about EOCO and setting up an independent enquiry will be better.**