Ghana: Decision for Finance Minister to Remain in Office or Not Is Determined By President - Emile Short

25 November 2022
Ghanaian Times (Accra)

Justice Emile Short, former Commissioner at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative (CHRAJ), has asserted that the decision for the Minister of Finance to remain in office or not will depend on the president.

"The Commission will not ask the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Attato stay out of office following the petition filed by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas against him but the decision to stay out of office or not is an issue for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to decide," he posited.

According to him, he does not knowthe issue but when the Commission receives a complaint it would send it to the person whom the complaint was made and that person would have to respond within a specific period and the respond would be sent back to the complainant for his/her response.

Justice Short, who is Chairman of Eminent Advisory Committee, insisted that the Commission would not ask MrOfori-Atta to stay out of office but that would be an issue for President Akufo-Add to determine since the petitioner, Anas Aremeyaw Anas had raised an issue of conflict of interest against the Minister of Finance for which he should be investigated.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament made anumber of allegations against Mr Ofori-Atta for which they are seeking to remove him from office which are; despicable conflict of Interest ensuring he directly benefits from economic woes as his companies receive commissions, unethical contractual advantage and unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution supposedly for construction of the National Cathedral.

Mr Ofori-Atta refuted all the allegations when he appeared before the eight-member ad hoc committee that was investigating him.

CHRAJ boss Joseph Whittal told journalists on Monday November 21 that "The allegations are that there is conflict of interest in terms of their official duties as public officers and the companies in which they have interest in terms of government bonds and so the case is going through the standard process of assessment in order to make sure that it meets procedural requirement under the Commission's regulation as well as whether it is really within the mandate of the Commission. Based on that, we will then decide what next steps to take."

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