Ford gift saga: CHRAJ did a 'bogus' job - Karbo

Parliamentary candidate for Lawra constituency, Anthony Abayifa Karbo has described the report by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on President John Mahama's infamous Ford Expedition gift as "bogus".

According to him, CHRAJ investigations into the car gift saga is not impressive enough because it appears the Commission contradicted itself in the report released on Wednesday.

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the youth wing of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and a citizen petitioned CHRAJ to investigate the President following media reports he received a Ford Expedition from a Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, who was subsequently given government contracts.

However, in a 78-page report, CHRAJ cleared the President of bribery, corruption, indicting him for violating the gift policy.

According to CHRAJ, it was satisfied that the gift in question formed part of gifts prohibited under the Gift Policy under the Code of Conduct and that although the evidence show that President Mahama subsequently surrendered the gift to the State, the action nonetheless contravened the gift policy.

CHRAJ said it has evidence showing Mahama surrendered the Ford Expedition gift from the Burkinabe contractor to the State vehicle pool.

The Commission also established the President was not culpable of conflict of interest, or fraud in relation to the manner in which the vehicle was given to him.

But speaking on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Karbo sought further clarification from CHRAJ, saying "as far as I know, the job that the CHRAJ did was a bogus one. All they sought to do was to say that the President has committed an offence, at the same time; they whitewash the President without even telling us what the remedial actions are…"

To Karbo, "one of the main difficulties in fighting corruption is the perception and the only way you can deal with perception is transparency" but this item was missing in the car gift to President John Mahama.

He therefore wished CHRAJ would have done a thorough work before bringing out their report which attempts to exonerate the President.

"Was there any in-depth investigation into this matter? Was there any thorough work that was done into this matter?"

"Transparency is key in killing perception. The medicine for perception is transparency," he stated.

He further noted that the gift that was given to the President smacks of corruption.

"What is transparent about a gift which you were not supposed to collect in the first place? What is transparent about a gift which, according to the CHRAJ report, the President shouldn’t have taken? I mean it was not appropriate for the President to receive it at all," Karbo said.