Audio By Carbonatix
Barely a week after the Sole Commissioner to investigate scandalous judgement debts cases was sworn into office, some lawyers have punched holes in the Constitutional Instrument 79 establishing his office with some calling for its total withdrawal.
President John Mahama on Monday honoured a promise to delve into the mystery surrounding some judgment debts by naming Justice Yaw Appau of the Court of Appeal as the Sole Commissioner to probe the payments said to have cost the nation millions of cedis.
According to a constitutional lawyer, Nana Asante Bediatuo, “it seems to me that the instrument was a kind of rush”.
He said an instrument with the responsibility of investigating a serious matter, such as judgment debts, should be a little more detailed and called for a little more direction to be given to the instrument.
“Well they have to withdraw it, do it properly and then relay. That is, if the powers that be agree with the position that we have taken,” he opined in an interview with Joy News.
According to Nana Asante Bediatuo, the decision to extend the scope of the investigation to cover cases from 1992 is “too broad and unnecessary”.
He however suggested that the Commission goes through the Auditor General’s report from that period and select problematic cases for further investigations.
“We can take our time and really look at the terms of the instrument itself and make sure that the mandate being given the Commissioner is such that he can actually do some good work, and not also interferes with other process going on in the court and parliament.”
Dr. Dominic Ayine, also a constitutional lawyer also identified some areas he thinks the government ought to take a second look at to make the work of the commissioner “easy”.
He suggested that the CI79 should be amended to bring some precision with respect to some of the “more troubling aspects”. He also added that the inordinate, as contained in the CI, must be properly defined.
“I am not predicting that he is going to have a hard time doing his job, but from a legal technical point of view, there are things that need to be addressed in order that he can work smoothly”, he said.
Play the attached audio to listen to their submissions
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