Both The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and the Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Mr. Osei Owusu have expressed shock over the appointment of Alhaji Baba Kamara as National Security Advisor to President John Dramani Mahama.
Whilst the Bekwai MP is arguing that Kamara’s promotion from a policy advisor to National Security Advisor puts a security budget into untrustworthy hands if the allegations against him turned out to be true, the GII led by Victus Azeem thinks the president did not do proper background work before making the appointment public.
“The position he is going to hold has an uncontrollable budget. What is the fate of monies entrusted to his charge, if we cannot trust his integrity?” Osei Wusu told Joy FM yesterday.
Baba Kamara, who is also a former Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria reportedly served as a conduit for the payment of bribe money by Mabey and Johnson, a British bridge construction firm to some top government officials in the Jerry John Rawlings government.
A ruling by the Serious Fraud Office in London in 1999 indicated that Mabey and Johnson allegedly paid bribes totaling several thousands of the British Pound Sterling to the said officials.
Baba Kamara, who is one of the accused persons, attempted to use the judicial process to block an attempt by the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to conduct investigations into the alleged bribery case but lost.
The late President Mills, who had then appointed Kamara as Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria was compelled to suspend his swearing.
The new Security Advisor was not part of the ten envoys sworn-in by President John Mills. His name was struck-out from the list of envoys handed over to the media, prior to the short ceremony, which was performed by President John Mills.
The Castle did not give any reason for his absence at the time. He was later given the green light to assume duty as Ghana’s representative in Nigeria.
Though the Supreme Court directed the CHRAJ to resume investigations into the allegation after Baba Kamara’s challenge that he was a private man at the time the said bribery took place was thrown out, the case has been hanging up to date without any definite pronouncement on it by the ombudsman.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court, presided over by Ms. Justice Sophia A.B. Akuffo, held that under Article 218 of the 1992 Constitution, CHRAJ had powers to investigate private individuals implicated alongside public officials.
The court further argued that, where in an alleged bribery/corruption allegation, a private individual was implicated alongside public officials, that individual could be investigated by CHRAJ.
Mr. Vitus Azeem on his part told the same radio station that the appointment of Baba Kamara shows that the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) had failed to bring closure to bribery scandal.
“One would have expected that something would have been done about it [since 2009],” but “the long silence means that CHRAJ is not interested in the case,” the anti-corruption campaigner told Joy FM.
Meanwhile The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) says there is nothing wrong with Baba Kamara, the new National Security Advisor, taking up a position in government while being investigated by the Commission. In an interview with Citi FM, the Head of Corporate Communication and Public Relations at CHRAJ, Comfort Akosua Adu said although investigations are on-going; no adverse findings have been made against him (Kamara) yet.
The Chronicle also established that in 2011, the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service which also investigated the case exonerated the Mr. Kamara and his group from any wrongdoing. “We found nothing that suggests the people mentioned received bribes from Mabey & Johnson. Our report cleared them of any act of impropriety. We have handed over the report to the Attorney-General whose duty it is to submit it to the President, advising him on the next line of action to take” the media quoted a police source as saying at the time.
CHRAJ which is still investigating the case has, however, not come out to publicly state that the accused persons have been exonerated by them. More anon
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