By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday June 16, 2010.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says it is dissatisfied with the Human Rights Courts decision to stop it from investigating the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal in which some senior officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been hauled before the commission.
“While respecting the court in this matter, the Commission would like to register its dissatisfaction with the judgement which prohibits it from executing its constitutional anti-corruption mandate in relation to the M&J case”, the commission said in a release signed in Accra yesterday by Mrs. Comfort Akosua Edu, Head of Public Relations of CHRAJ
The release said “on June 11, 2010 the High Court, Accra (Human Rights Court), in the case of the Republic versus Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ex-Parte Kwame Peprah and others, Suit No. HRCM 46/10 (Unreported) restrained the Commission from investigating the Mabey and Johnson (M&J) case for the reason that Commissioner Short made prejudicial statements in his interview with Metro TV on March 16, 2010”.
“The Commission believes that Commissioner Short never made any such prejudicial statements. The Commission would therefore, take the necessary steps to challenge the judgement,” the release concluded.
On Friday June 11, 2010 the CHRAJ was ordered by the Human Rights Court presided over by Justice UP Derry to stop any investigations into the alleged Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal in which some senior officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been hauled before the commission.
The court had ruled that although CHRAJ had the investigating powers to probe the NDC gurus, in this particular one, it could exercise its power because it was bound to show bias against the six officials who were under investigations following certain pronouncements made by Commissioner Emile Short on Metro TV, an Accra-based private television station.
Justice Dery, who described CHRAJ as an investigative body and not ‘quasi judicial’, indicated that it was prejudicial for Commissioner Short, who is also the chairman of the panel conducting the investigation, to have gone on air while the case was pending before the commission.
The judge had said for Commissioner Short to have made such pronouncements, it was possible that he would not give the applicants a fair hearing; therefore in the interest of justice, CHRAJ could not be allowed to hear the matter.
The judge dismissed the assertion by CHRAJ that irrespective of the interview granted, the commission would be fair to the applicants because there was a difference between the commission as an entity and the commissioner, indicating that Mr. Short did not act in his personal capacity but as the commissioner, and that whatever he does affects the commission.
The M&J scandal involves six current and former government appointees including former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah; Alhaji Baba Kamara, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria; former Minister of State at the Office of the President, Alhaji Amadu Seidu; Dr Ato Quarshie, a former Minister of Roads and Highways, who allegedly received the largest chunk of the bribe money; former Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister.
The rest are Alhaji Saddique Boniface former Minister of Works and Housing in the Kufuor Administration; former Minister of Health, Dr. George Adja-Sipa Yankey; and Edward Lord Attivor, currently Acting Managing Director of Intercity STC. He was Board chairman of STC at the time he allegedly took the M&J bribe.
The NDC officials, who mostly served in the Jerry Rawlings regime and carried over to the Atta Mills Administration, were accused of taking bribes totaling over £750,000, when M&J took up contracts to build bridges in Ghana in the 1990s.
From the mid 1980s until approximately 1996, M&J’s interests in Ghana were represented by the late Kwame Ofori, also known as Danny Ofori-Atta, who controlled a Ghanaian bridge-building company, and apparently had influence within the circles of the then ruling NDC government then.
The Commission commenced public hearing into the case on March 15, 2010 and was stopped by the Human Rights Court on June 11, 2010.
Also see: www.dailyguideghana.com
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