Posted
on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday,
September 17, 2014
Pressure is mounting on Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, Chairperson
of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) following
her extravagant and reckless dissipation of public funds on accommodation running
into over $200,000.
She becomes the
latest head of a state institution to be embroiled in allegation of wanton
misapplication of state resources at a time when the human rights body is clearly
starved of funding.
Media reports indicate that the Commissioner
currently stays at the Best Western Hotel where the taxpayer is billed $450
daily on her behalf.
Interestingly, the
hotel is situated some metres from the commissioner’s officially-designated residence
at the Airport Residential Area, Accra which is currently under refurbishment
on her orders at a huge cost to CHRAJ.
A member of Parliament’s Special Budget
Committee, Frank Annoh Dompreh, is leading a campaign to probe CHRAJ Ms
Lamptey, after it emerged she spent more than $148,000 on rent.
Mr Dompreh said the timing for the recent
revelations is appropriate since Ms Lamptey has for two years, consistently
turned down invitations by the Committee to appear before it to answer
allegations of corruption against her.
“Even
at a point, we [the Committee] reached a consensus for her to be subpoenaed for
her to appear before the Committee of Special Budgets”, the MP for
Nsawam/Adoagyir in the Eastern Region, revealed.
Franklin Cudjoe of
Imani Ghana called for her dismissal. “Listening to the CHRAJ Boss is getting
me very very very angry right now!!!!! This woman paaaa has the temerity to
suggest that she is doing us a favour by paying her hotel bills as if it would
be free. Ah!! The Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice is a
purveyor of injustice. She lived in a hotel in Ghana for years paying a
whopping sum of $100,000 whilst her official residence was available. She has
violated the basic human rights of all tax payers, especially when she has been
very very silent on anything related to administrative abuse and corruption in
Ghana. President Mahama, frankly frankly, now these things are affecting your
legacy. Please FIRE her right now!!!!”, he said in a facebook post.
AU
Village
Before lodging at the hotel, Ms Lamptey resided at
the plush African Union (AU) Village at Cantonments, Accra at the cost of
$148,500 in rent for 33 months from November 2011 to April 2014.
The tenancy agreement a copy of which is in
possession of DAILY GUIDE indicated that she was paying $4,500 monthly to the
landlord Sigma 7 Limited of 125 Boundary Rd, East Legon, Accra.
Since her appointment by the late President John
Atta Mills, Justice Lamptey whose conditions of service is equivalent to
Justices of the Court of Appeal, has not occupied her officially designated
residence because she wants the place refurbished.
Efforts by the contractor from PWD Prestige to
complete what is believed to be minor refurbishment has been frustrated by the
Commissioner’s high sense of taste and as a result, the contractor abandoned
the project because the funds had been exhausted.
She has maintained that it is the duty of the state
to house her saying “the state has an obligation to house me whether I’m a
native of Accra or…anywhere else. The job structure involves being housed; the
compensation is based on ‘we are providing these things for you.”
DAILY
GUIDE learnt that recently when the Parliamentary Select
Committee on Housing invited her to justify her profligate expenditure, she
failed to honour the invitation.
Former
Commissioner
Former CHRAJ Commissioner Justice Francis Emile
Short who occupied the building until his retirement in 2009, appeared set the
records straight on the matter when he told a radio station that the renovation
was being done on the request of Justice Lamptey and not him as being
speculated.
“As far as I can recollect these renovations were
requested by the present Commissioner, not me” he said, but admitted that
building needed some patching-up.
Bad
Faith
DAILY
GUIDE was probably the first to contact her for her
version of the story but she told this reporter that she was on her way to the
airport for a foreign trip and would grant an interview as soon as possible when
she returned.
Out of courtesy, Daily Guide had decided to hold on
to the story and not go to press until she returned from her trip but unknowing
to the paper, the commissioner was granting interview on the issue to another media
outlet.
No
Leadership
Apart from the issue of accommodation, sources said
she hardly steps into the office and most of the works are done by her
deputies, adding that the lack of leadership at CHRAJ had accounted for the
dwindling role of the commission in the administration of justice.
“She only goes to the office for reimbursement of
expenses made and has not visited majority of the commission’s regional and
district offices ever since she assumed office,” the source said.
She hardly attends the commission’s internal
meetings and is more interested in international human rights invitation where
allowances and remunerations are far better,” the source added.
Justification
& Denial
In her brief interview with DAILY GUIDE before it was
rescheduled, she insisted that she was the one footing her hotel bills but did
not indicate whether she was getting a refund and also said she had not been
going to work because she was on leave.
She has four cars together with a driver and police
protection at her disposal and the cars are always parked at the hotel’s
premises.
Poor
Work Conditions
The since fire gutted the east wing of the Old
Parliament House where CHRAJ head office is located there has not been much
effort to press the government to find suitable premises for the commission.
Some essential staff have been cramped into
unsuitable office spaces while others are working without offices.
Also going waste are a number of Toyota pickups
donated by DANIDA two years ago to enhance the administration of justice but
there had not been any effort by the CHRAJ boss to distribute the vehicles to
the regions.
The public outcry that has greeted the Commissioner’s
ostentatious lifestyle appear to make her stay in office untenable.
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