General News of Monday, 15 November 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2021-11-15
The government has targeted four priority areas to receive support from oil revenue
• PIAC, EOCO entered into an agreement to fight corruption
• PIAC members have said it is better to allow agencies to do their work independently
• PIAC deal with EOCO has been reviewed
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has withdrawn from a partnership with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) which was aimed at fighting corruption related to disbursement of petroleum revenue.
This comes after the new board reviewed the deal, having found some inherent challenges in the MoU, with EOCO prompting them to abrogate it.
PIAC is the statutory body with a responsibility to foresee the management and use of the country’s petroleum revenues.
Speaking at a media engagement on Saturday (13 November) according to Asaaseradio.com, the vice-chairman of PIAC, Nasir Alfa Mohammed, said the deal had to be reviewed
“Over the years, the partnership had to be reviewed. We realised that we are dealing with a highly political sensitive organisation (EOCO), so there were internal members of PIAC who thought that we need to re-evaluate the kind of relationship,” Mohammed said.
He added: “For example, if you find somebody guilty of an infraction of the law and then you give it to EOCO and for whatever reason the person happens to be a power broker, and EOCO comes out to do their investigations… and nothing happened, now you are tight-lipped,” Asaase quoted
“So, honestly the PIAC members now say that it is better to allow agencies to do their work, it is better that we leave it for them to do their independent work. If they want to, that is their job… they don’t really need us to come and tell them… so we are a bit careful about that arrangement that is how come,” he added