The
suspended Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative (CHRAJ), Lauretta Lamptey, has said she is still the head
of the Government agency despite being asked by the President to step
aside following the establishment of a prima facie case against her in
connection with investigations into alleged impropriety on her part
concerning her official accommodation.
President John Mahama on
the advice of the Judicial Council and pursuant to Article 146 (10) (b)
of the 1992 Constitution, suspended Ms. Lamptey on January 13, 2015.
Chief
of Staff, Prosper Bani, said in a statement on Tuesday that: “The
suspension follows the establishment of a prima facie case against Ms.
Lamptey by the Chief Justice, and the setting up of a five (5)-member
committee to investigate complaints made against her.”
In August
last year, Lauretta Lamptey moved into a hotel after her US$4,200
monthly rent for the apartment, including utility bills at the AU
Village expired.
Her official residence, which was previously
occupied by her predecessor Justice Francis Emile Short, was at the time
being redesigned with several variations at her instance, all at a cost
of Ghc182,000.
Lamptey, as of late last year, was paying $456 a
day for her hotel accommodation. In total, about Ghc161,302.5 was spent
on Lamptey’s stay in the hotel between August and November 2014.
The controversy led to the removal of CHRAJ from a list of Human Rights Commissions for an International study.
Anti-graft
body, Ghana Integrity Initiative, had earlier asked Ms. Lamptey to step
aside voluntarily for investigations to be made into the saga.
Former
CHRAJ Boss Emile Short also expressed qualms about his successor’s
action, which he said erased the Commission’s credibility in fighting
corruption.
Lamptey’s suspension, Mr. Bani noted, is to protect the integrity of the enquiry.
Ms.
Lamptey has been asked to hand over her duties to a Deputy Commissioner
of CHRAJ, Mr. Richard Quayson, not later than Friday January 16, 2015.
She,
however, told Joy FM’s Super Morning show host Kojo Yankson on Friday
January 16, 2015 that her suspension is not the same as a dismissal.
“The
suspension is a suspension for the period of investigations, it is not a
removal from office. It is not. It can’t compare to resignation.”
Pressed
by Yankson about why she did not opt to resign in the maelstrom of
criticism against her after the story broke to avert the President’s
suspension of her from office, Lamptey said she thought it was very
important to remain in office to have investigations conducted to clear
the air, rather than to leave the state agency in the lurch.
Her
response was: “No I thought that [resigning] would have been completely
out of order. If you are the head of an institution and there’s an
accusation, and particularly since both myself and my deputy and pretty
much anyway involved in the housing whose got an interest, first of all
understood it to be CHRAJ’s transaction; so first of all, there was a
little confusion about why it was being looked at as the Commissioner,
and therefore for me, it’s my institution to think I was confident that
in an audit or any kind of investigation, it would be clear that these
are not personal decisions, and therefore if there was something wrong
with the rental and if there was something improper with it, it will be
the Commission.
It will not be proper for me to step aside and
leave the Commission with that attack, with that criticism. I thought it
was very important first of all to have an audit because that possibly
will be the only way to clear the name of both an institution and an
individual and that to step aside and have it not being investigated, I
mean I never even contemplated, that’s like saying that there’s a mess
and you are supposed to be in the centre of it and you don’t want to
stay and make sure that that mess is cleaned up or seen to no be a mess,
I thought it would be highly irresponsible to basically say: ‘I cannot
stand the criticism so I’ll step aside. It would not have protected
CHRAJ because any audit would have shown that it was the Commission and
therefore if something was wrong…it would be very unfair if we didn’t
make sure there was an investigation so that the Commission’s name was
cleared and that’s why I didn’t resign…” |
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| Source: starrfmonline.com |
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