CHRAJ Boss Wants To Live Like An "Arabian Queen"...Building A "Mini-Palace" For Herself!!! - Atik Mohammed

Atik Mohammed

Policy Analyst of the People's National Convention (PNC), Atik Mohammed has called on President John Dramani Mahama to initiate a formal procedure for the removal of the embattled Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms. Lauretta Lamptey.


Contributing to a panel discussion programme on Peace FM, Atik Mohammed was alarmed by the conduct of the CHRAJ boss who is alleged to have engaged in extreme extravagance and misappropriation of State resources on her place of residence.

According to him, Ms. Lamptey's has succeeded in compromising her position by causing financial loss to the State and has also debased the integrity of the institution she heads.

“This woman has compromised her office and has dragged the entire CHRAJ into dispute. What she has done by this action is that she has disabled CHRAJ from being the institution that we all repose confidence in…," he said.

Ms. Lauretta Lamptey has been in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. She has come under intense pressure to vacate her post following revelations that over $203,500 has been spent on renovating her official residence. 

She is said to have spent an enormous amount of the commission’s scarce resources on an expensive rent apartment at the African Union Village and hotel bills while failing to effectively discharge her duties.

The CHRAJ Bosse is said to have since August this year, moved into a hotel and paying the Cedi equivalent of $456.25 per day after the US$5,500 monthly rent for her apartment at the African Union (AU) Village expired. http://elections.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/201409/215110.php (for more on that)

Following the report, four civil society groups have raised serious concerns over the huge expenditure on her accommodation.

Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms. Lauretta Lamptey

They described the expenditure as constituting an injustice, wasteful and an open loot of state resources. The four groups are IMANI Ghana, the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII). She has however strenuously denied the accusations saying her critics lack understanding of the nature of her job. Commenting on the news reports on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" Morning Show, Atik Mohammed likened Ms. Lamptey to an "Arabian queen", accusing her of depleting State coffers to build a mini-palace. He wondered why Ms. Lamptey, just as some other public servants who are still at post do, failed to be pricked by her conscience. “She wanted to virtually turn her place of residence into an Arabian palace; living like an Arabian queen…This particular act cannot escape the test of abuse of office, conflict of interest and embezzlement," he noted.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana