Prez refers CHRAJ boss’s conduct to Chief Justice
President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, to investigate corruption claims against the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Lauretta Lamptey.
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President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, to investigate corruption claims against the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Lauretta Lamptey.
Ms Lamptey reportedly spent $148,000 on her 33-month rent and an additional $180,000 on renovating her official residence.
Although she has explained the circumstances under which the money was spent, many insist she must be removed from office.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Mr Frank Annor-Dompreh, and the Progressive Nationalists Forum (PNF) have submitted separate petitions to the President asking for the removal of the commissioner.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile and Multi TV channel on Saturday, a member of the legal team of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Abraham Amaliba, revealed that President Mahama, on his return from the trip to the USA for the UN General Assembly meetings, had forwarded the two petitions to the Chief Justice for action.
“The President, upon his return, has forwarded two petitions to the Chief Justice for the necessary action… One petition was based on what was submitted as an Auditor-General’s report [and] the President has acted on that,” he said.
He indicated that the President was determined to act decisively on any findings by the investigative committee to be formed by the Chief Justice.
“If the second one comes and we need to act, true to our character we will act…This is a clear indication that we are not sitting on those petitions,” Mr Amaliba stated.
However, a former Commissioner of CHRAJ, Dr Justice Francis Emile Short, has said the President only acted on the provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
“Irrespective of the ongoing special audit by the Auditor-General, what the Constitution provides is that if the President receives a petition for the removal of a justice of the Superior Court [which also applies to the CHRAJ boss]…, he shall refer the petition to the Chief Justice,” Dr Justice Short said.
According to him, the Chief Justice would then be mandated to “determine whether there is a prima facie case”.
The Daily Graphic in its Tuesday, September 16, 2014 edition, reported that the Commissioner of CHRAJ, Mrs Lauretta Lamptey had, since August this year, moved into a hotel after the US$5, 500 monthly rent for her apartment at the African Union (AU) Village expired.
The daily rate for the hotel is $456.25 being paid in cedis, meaning that from July 2011 when she was appointed to July 2014 when her rent at the AU Village expired, a period of 37 months, $203, 500 was spent on her rent accomodation, including utilities.
credit: Myjoyonline