Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 30 March 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED ruling of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on the preliminary objections raised by some lawyers representing the individuals alleged to have received huge sums of money as bribe from UK-based construction company Mabey and Johnson (M&J) has taken another twist.
Just when the Commissioner for CHRAJ, Francis Emile Short, was about to give a verdict on the substantive legal objections raised in the previous sitting, which compelled them to adjourn till yesterday, Samuel Cudjoe, counsel for former Finance and Economic Planning Minister under the Jerry Rawlings regime, Kwame Peprah, managed to put yet another stopper on not just the ruling on the preliminary objection, but CHRAJ’s ability to investigate the case.
Mr. Cudjoe sought to prohibit CHRAJ from ruling on the matter since he has filed an application at the High Court in which he is seeking to prohibit them from investigating the M&J bribery scandal.
The application, which was filed on March 26 2010, borders on comments the Commissioner was purported to have made on Metro TV, and according to Mr. Peprah’s lawyer are prejudiced.
He quoted Article 212 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic which prohibits a commission from sitting on a case pending before a court to support his claim. He therefore prayed the Commission to suspend its ruling until the High Court finally determines the case.
Aside that, Mr. Cudjoe still insisted that CHRAJ as a body has no mandate to investigate the M&J bribery scandal and therefore asked it to stay away from delving into the case.
Though Mr. Short was initially jittery about the lawyer’s concern, he eventually succumbed after Mr. Cudjoe offered reasons with reference cases to buttress his point.
Mr. Cudjoe bemoaned the Commissioner and CHRAJ as a human rights institution to endeavour not to trample on the rights of others, therefore urging them to suspend the ruling until the final determination by the High Court.
Lawyers for the rest of the accused persons, with the exception of that of Dr. George Adja Sipa Yankey, Kwame Gyan, associated themselves with Mr. Cudjoe’s objection, stressing the belief that a ruling on the subject matter would in one way or the other undermine the decision of the High Court.
The Commission was thus compelled by prevailing circumstance to adjourn sitting until April 7, 2010.
Earlier on, Commissioner Short had cause to question the absence of Mr. Kwame Peprah and Dr. Ato Quarshie since their lawyers had all agreed to ask them to be present at yesterday’s sitting after the former raised an issue about their absence during the maiden sitting.
Mr. Cudjoe argued that his client did not turn up because he was not personally subpoenaed to appear before the Commission.
On his part, Kwabena Forson, lawyer for Dr. Ato Quarshie who represented his lead counsel Nana Ato Dadzie, said he was preparing to appear before the Commission with his client, only for him to be told at the last minute that Dr. Quarshie was indisposed.
At the sitting, the lawyers engaged in a variety of ‘legal assaults and gymnastics’ similar to those used at the maiden sitting, using a host of technicalities on the Commission to salvage their clients from its jaws.
Just as the three-member panel chaired by Commissioner Short was about to commence, lawyers representing Alhaji Baba Kamara, Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria and those for former Minister for Roads and Highways, Dr. Ato Quashie, raised technical issues on behalf of their clients.
The M&J scandal involves six current and former government appointees including former Finance Minister and current Board Chairman for SSNIT; Kwame Peprah, Alhaji Baba Kamara; Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, sacked Minister of state at the Office of the President; Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Dr. Ato Quarshie; a former minister of Roads and Highways who received the largest chunk of the bribe money, former Water Resources, Works and Housing Minister; Alhaji Saddique Boniface, former Minister of Health; Dr. George Adja-Sipa Yankey, and Edward Lord Attivor; current Acting Managing Director of Intercity STC.
He was the Board Chairman of STC at the time he allegedly took the M&J bribe.
The NDC officials, who mostly served in Jerry Rawlings’ administration and carried over to Atta Mills’, are accused of taking bribes totaling over £750,000 when M&J took up contracts to build bridges in Ghana in the 1990s.
From the mid 1980s until approximately 1996, M&J’s interests in Ghana were represented by one Kwame Ofori, also known as Danny Ofori-Atta, who controlled a Ghanaian bridge-building company and apparently had influence within the circles of the then ruling NDC government. He formed a political party, the EGLE to contest elections.
It is accepted by M&J that through the creation of the Ghana Development Fund (GDF), its executives facilitated corruption on behalf of the company and that they were in (or sought to create) a corrupt relationship with a variety of decision making Ghanaian public officials.
These funds were purportedly for the development of M&J business in Ghana, but in reality were capable of and were understood to be capable of being used for corrupt purposes.
Mr. Peprah was at that time Minister of Finance. The role of Alhaji Baba Kamara and his value as an agent to M&J is made clear in a document authored by an M&J executive, probably prior to July 1996, and sent to its directors.
Dr. Ato Quarshie, according to the report, received a £55,000 cheque when he visited London in July 1995 for a supposed ‘contract consultancy’.
This cheque was drawn on M&J’s Clydesdale Bank account at the Victoria branch in Buckingham Palace Road, and signed by two of the company’s directors.
The prosecution’s case therefore was that the payment to Dr. Quarshie and the subsequent payments were but examples of a series of bribes to various ministers and officials.
Other relatively junior officials who were also alleged to have received bribes included Alhaji Saddique Boniface, then an ECGD desk officer at the Ministry of Finance.
He had a bank account at the National Westminster Bank in Rickmansworth. On February 29 1996, Alhaji Saddique Boniface received a transfer of £10,000 from M&J to an account at Barclays Bank Plc in Watford.
On October 29 1996, the same account received a transfer of £13,970 from M&J. On October 29 1996, Alhaji Amadu Seidu, the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, received £5000 in his Woolwich account held in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.
Dr. Yankey, the Director of Legal and International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, received £10,000 in his Midland Bank account in Hill Street, London W1; and Edward Lord Attivor, also received £10,000 in his London bank account.
Interestingly, it was the same branch of the Clydesdale Bank which was used by M&J.
Alhaji Amadu Seidu received a further £5,000 on March 7 1997, the same date on which Alhaji Saddique Boniface received a further £2,500.
Although the amount was relatively small, the prosecution noted that it is indicative of the nature of the corruption M&J was then practicing.
M&J's payments to Dr. Yankey were not confined to the payment on October 24 1996, since his Hill Street account received an additional £5,000 on August 26 1998 from the former.
Following the revelations, Dr. Yankey resigned his position as Health Minister, ostensibly to clear his name in the matter. And in the heat of the brouhaha, Alhaji Amadu Seidu was dropped as Minister of State at the Office of President Mills, even though it was not clear why he was removed.
A potential appointee to the High Commission to Nigeria, Alhaji Baba Kamara, was however confirmed.
Dr. Ato Quarshie also resigned his position as a chairman of a team tasked to probe the Metro Mass Transit, while Lord Attivor and Kwame Peprah have since held on to their positions as STC MD and SSNIT Board Chairman respectively.
