Kofi Jumah’s Millions Debt Legacy…

The case in which a hapless former Fire Officer is fighting to get the AMA to pay him the full cost of his Chevrolet bus, which is now damaged, has thrown up the question of to what extent can a District, Municipal, or Metropolitan Assembly can be held liable for the actions or inactions of its Chief Executive when such an act or omission was without prior approval of, nor ratified by, the Assembly.

This question comes up strongly because in the specific case of Mr. Gershon King Bosso, the hapless former Fire Officer, the Commission On Human Rights And Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has ruled that Mr. Kofi Jumah “was acting or apparently acting in the course of his duties” when he commandeered the Chevrolet bus which was then parked in the yard of the Fire Service in Kumasi, and started using it.

Based on that ruling, the CHRAJ has ordered the “Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to pay through this office an amount of ¢120 million as a replacement value of the vehicle to the complainant.”

But this order, which was made as far back as 1st June 2004, has not been complied with by the KMA.

Investigations by the Weekly Standard have established that the KMA is denying liability for its former Chief Executive’s act in taking possession of the complainant’s vehicle, which act the KMA contends was not done with prior approval of the Assembly and neither was the Assembly informed to ratify the act after it was done.

This state of affairs means that Maxwell Kofi Jumah continues to enjoy his Ministerial pecks while the hapless former Fire Officer, who bought the vehicle to be used for commercial purposes so as to get some daily bread, continues to endure agony and pain as well as loss of revenue.

How Kofi Jumah Did It

Gershon King Bosso, left his vehicle in the Ghana Fire Service yard in Kumasi with permission from his former employers, the Ghana National Fire Service, and the then Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyemang.

King Bosso then left Kumasi for Accra to attend to a business assignment.

After his return to Kumasi he was informed by his colleagues that his vehicle had been removed from the Fire Service yard to the Waste Management yard by the Maxwell Kofi Jumah upon being appointed as the Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) following the NPP coming to power in 2001.

According to King Bosso, when he approached Kofi Jumah and claimed ownership of the bus, he (Kofi Jumah) initially expressed interest in buying the vehicle for the KMA so he requested for the documents.

“However,” King Bosso told the Weekly Standard, “we could not agree on the price for the vehicle. That notwithstanding, Kofi Jumah went ahead to start using the vehicle without my authority or knowledge, even though the key to the vehicle were with me.”

King Bosso told the Weekly Standard that on one occasion when he went to the KMA to check on the vehicle, he saw the Transport Officer of the KMA start the vehicle, whose key was with in his (King Bosso’s) possession, and the engine caught fire.

Following these, he has been trying, to no avail, to get Kofi Jumah and the KMA to pay for the vehicle.

Not even rulings and orders by the CHRAJ have proven capable of giving the hapless jobless former Fire Officer the just relief that he is entitled to. So, to what extent can a District, Municipal, or Metropolitan Assembly can be held liable for the actions or inactions of its Chief Executive when such an act or omission was without prior approval of, nor ratified by, the Assembly? The Weekly Standard will come back to this issue in subsequent issues