I Didn't Ask To Be Accommodated At AU Village - CHRAJ Boss

The suspended Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Lauretta Lamptey has insisted that she did not initiate the widely condemned renting of  the AU Village apartment.

'In my first week on the job, they said they need to rent a house for you. That was a surprise for me in the first place. I thought the house was available, when I saw it I thought I could move in.

Then they said we need to go ahead and rent,' she said adding that 'those were policy decisions.'

Ms Lamptey has been widely criticized for spending about 200,000 dollars  on rent at the AU Village and about 180, 000 cedis on the renovation of her official residence.

She has however been suspended by the President following the setting up of Committee by the Chief Justice to investigate complaints misconduct filed by petitioners.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Ms Lamptey insisted that she had no hand  in the renovation idea and processes it was masterminded by the CHRAJ as a body.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Ms Lamptey insisted that she had no hand  in the renovation idea and processes it was masterminded by the CHRAJ as a body.

She added that she put pressure on the contractor renovating her official residence to complete the project on time because she realized  that though the project was supposed to take three months, it took more than that.

'It wasn't rented with the view of being three years. That's why I've talked about it so much because the continued renewals were a source of great concern to me and I've had many battles for the contractor and said you are causing the commission money, our lease date is coming up and you are causing us a lot of money.'

She said the contractor started on August 2012, he stopped work in June 2013 and during those ten months he was probably on site for six months and not three years.'

Several groups and individuals including the Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF) and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Nsawam/Adoagyiri petitioned the Attorney Generals Department and the Presidency to have Ms Lamptey removed.

The Chief Justice  later established a five member committee to investigate the complaints of misconduct filed against the Commissioner.

Credit: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh |Citfmonline.com