'CHRAJ Boss Must Go'

Vivian Lamptey
The Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF) is calling for the suspension of Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, the Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The group believes President John Mahama must take a bold decision and suspend Ms. Lamptey pursuant to article 146 10 (b) to save CHRAJ and Ghana from further embarrassment and ridicule.

The CHRAJ boss has come under public criticism over allegations that she has been staying at the Best Western Premier Hotel since August, this year at a cost of $450 (GH¢1,400) per day to the state while renovation of her official residence had stalled since 2011.

It is estimated that her accommodation alone has so far cost the state some GH¢160,000 in three months.

Richard Nyamah, spokesperson for PNF, who made reference to a 30 th September, 2014 petition to the Presidency calling for the dismissal of the CHRAJ boss, expressed disappointment with the President for failing to fire Ms. Lamptey.

He said, 'I feel highly disappointed in the President for failing to take this opportunity to decidedly deal with corruption and opulence, and also the chairman of the council of state for failing to appropriately counsel the President to do what is right.'

It is clear from the actions and inactions of the government that it has encouraged Ms. Lamptey to be corrupt by resorting to vacating her office since April, 2014 and spending most, if not all her time on foreign conferences and programmes at which she receives allowances and per diems up to $5,000, Mr. Nyamah noted.

The PNF spokesperson, who described the silence of the president over his petition as 'abdication of responsibility,' stated that the President is further fuelling the perception that he lacks the moral courage to fight corruption.

'If the President had acted as I indicated, Ghana would have saved GH¢161,000 in hotel bills as reported by the Daily Graphic of 25 th , November, 2014'.

Mr. Nyamah claimed that per his sources within the Controller and Accountant General's Department, the government has failed to pay the salary of Ms. Lamptey since she took office in 2011.

The PNF spokesperson said he was also reliably informed that Ms. Lauretra was only recently paid three months of her salary on appeal after he had filed his petition, insisting 'there is a backlog of arrears in excess of three years; this is condemnable as much as Ms. Lauretta's opulence is.'

Mr. Nyamah called on the Chief Justice to convene her three-member committee immediately to hear the case against Ms. Lamptey as she has failed to respond within the mandatory eight days she is required to give a response.

'I am ready to appear with my counsel before the committee with further evidence to help in the process of her removal,' the Mr. Nyamah said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director for the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi has also added his voice to the raging controversy, saying the CHRAJ boss should be impeached if she fails to quit.

According to him, after all the embarrassment Ms. Lauretta Vivian Lamptey has caused a very respectable institution such as CHRAJ, she should not still be in office.

He noted that CHRAJ has for some time now been bedeviled by a streak of infractions and misadventures and wondered why the boss of the human rights body is still at post.

'Why is this official still keeping her job for all the embarrassment she has caused to herself, for the embarrassment she's caused to a very important institution of state and one of the key institutions of democratic governance we have in Ghana today; why is she still keeping the office,' he stated.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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