[ 2017-04-20 ]

AMERI shouldn’t have sponsored Addison C’ttee but … – Emile Short
The controversy surrounding the Addison
committee’s AMERI-sponsored trip to Dubai, will
require a thorough investigation since the
situation is complex, a former Commissioner of the
Commission for Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short has said.


According to him, although the incident appears
to be a clear case of conflict of interest, the
context in which it occurred makes it quite
peculiar and complicated.

A 17-member committee chaired by Philip Addison,
was constituted by the government to investigate a
power deal signed by the erstwhile government with
AMERI.

The committee said it discovered the former
government paid $150 million more than they were
expected to pay.

The Minority in Parliament has claimed that, the
committee’s report was biased, and was
compromised by AMERI’s sponsorship of the
team’s trip to Dubai to meet AMERI’s
executives.

The Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo, in an
interview with Citi News, said the Philip
Addison-led committee did not compromise itself by
allowing AMERI to fund its trip to Dubai, but
according to Justice Emile Short, the situation is
quite complex, and requires some tact before
conclusions can be made.

“We have to look at the special circumstances of
this case.
The provision of government especially with
regards to this AMERI deal and the fact that the
company was the one that insisted that the
committee should travel abroad…So these are the
parameters which any institution investigating the
matter would have to take into consideration.

It is not your normal situation,” he said.
“Ordinarily speaking, when a committee is going
to investigate a matter, it is true that the
person or institution that is going to be
investigated should not be seen to be giving
benefits  or providing facilities for the
committee investigating the matter, but in the
peculiar situation of this case, there is a
twist,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minority has given indications that
it will petition the Commission for Human Rights
and Administrative Justice to investigate the
matter, which it has described as “embarrassing,
unethical and shameful.”

Source - citifmonline.com

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