Atta Mills' Constitutional Review process cost US$3m yet it's gathering dust – Lawyer claims

An Accra-based legal practitioner, Mr Twum Barimah, has said documents compiled from the Constitutional Review process, have been left to gather dust.

He has noted that the documents, which came out of a process initiated by the late former President John Evans Atta-Mills could have been utilised for the good of the country.

“For God’s sake, those documents cost Ghana a whopping US$3 million to prepare,” he admonished.

The lawyer expressed his disgust concerning how the documents that seek to refine the country’s Constitution, are not attended to when there are some thorny issues with the Constitution that needed to be addressed.

He was speaking on the mid-day news of Accra100.5FM on Monday, 3 April 2023.

Mr Barimah was reacting to the powers vested in the president in making appointments to the Supreme Court among other things.

He said per the Constitutional Review documents, some of the amendments that require parliamentary approval and those that require a referendum would be taken through the process.

The lawyer said looking at the posturing of President Akufo-Addo concerning appointments, implementation of the Constitutional Review document is necessary.

He reacted to criticisms about why former President John Dramani Mahama failed to implement the findings of the Constitutional Review Committee when he became the president in 2012.

In his view, the former president had only four years and the current president has had more than six years to be able to implement the findings of the committee.

He argued that the current president stands a better chance of implementing the findings of the committee, especially at a time many are worried about some aspects of the Constitution after 30 years of its existence