Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguide.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The controversy surrounding renovation works carried out on the private residence of the mother in-law of former President Jerry John Rawlings is far from over.
Yesterday, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah appeared before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to answer questions relating to comments he made about the renovation works on former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings’s mother’s house.
He virtually contradicted what his colleague deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng had earlier told the Commission that government indeed did some considerable renovation on the said building located at the Nyaniba Estates in Osu, Accra, to enable Konadu and her family to perch at her mother’s place after fire razed down the Rawlingses’ Ridge residence.
Whilst Mr. Agyenim-Boateng had claimed that government only did some painting works on the house, Dr. Omane-Boamah said there was more to it than the mere painting since “it was not just painting but something extra was also done.”
Though he could not give the details of what exactly went into the renovation works, Omane Boamah, a medical doctor-turned politician, told the Commission that apart from the painting, some security features were also put in place.
But sources close to businessman Herbert Mensah, who claims to have paid for the renovation works at the said house and had receipts to justify how much he expended on it, said he was extremely surprised at the spin that government was trying unsuccessfully to put on the renovation.
The source said Mr. Mensah was prepared to produce the receipts whenever the need arose and therefore challenged government to make any such receipts available to the Commission, if any, to back their claim of having painted the house and fitted it with some security equipment.
In a related development, the pressure group, Ghana Youth Movement (GYM) which petitioned CHRAJ to investigate the case has also asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate Herbert Mensah for what they claim to be ‘false misrepresentation’ in the same case for possible prosecution.
A petition presented to the SFO and signed by Nana Prempeh Agyemang, Kwabena Tandoh and Paa Kwasi Boateng said the statement by Mr. Agyenim-Boateng at the previous hearing to the effect that government did some renovation works on the house, contradicted Mr. Mensah’s claim.
GYM said “It will be prudent to investigate his said involvement in this matter and if proven to be false claim, then he should be prosecuted as stated in our criminal code that false misrepresentation is a crime.”
Mr. Mensah however declined to respond to any of these statements when DAILY GUIDE contacted him.