Commission on Human Rights indicts ex-Commissioner

Accra (The Crusading Guide) - After finding him guilty of perpetrating acts that constituted corruption, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has recommended that Mr Samuel Appiah-Ampofo, former National Insurance Commissioner (NIC), be banned from holding any public office.

Giving the ruling last Friday, 5 April, the Chairman of CHRAJ, Mr Francis Emile Short, noted that by his admission on 27 November 2001 that he received $96,500 from Mr Edward Grant Whytock, a broker working as a consultant to the Aviation division of Nicholson Leslie Ltd.- which is part of the Aon Group that Appiah-Ampofo brought in to replace Ghana Airways’ insurance brokers - The ex-Commissioner acted in an unethical manner.

At the time of the hearing of the corruption case brought against Appiah-Amposfo by Mr Kweku Baako Jnr., Editor-in-Chief of The Crusading Guide, who acted on behalf of the paper, CHRAJ discovered that out of the $96,500 that was paid into the former Commissioner’s London account as kick-back, only $11,243 was left.

The CHRAJ therefore, recommended that the outstanding amount of money be paid into government chest. Other recommendations were that Appiah-Ampofo should be banned from membership of any insurance institution and also criminal prosecution be instituted against him by the Attorney-General.

In addition to these, CHRAJ said all future National Insurance Commissioners should be registered Insurance Practitioners subject to the recommendation and discipline of the appropriate regulatory bodies.

In the presence of the former Insurance Commissioner, his lawyer, his wife and Kweku Baako Jner., Mr Emile Short bluntly observed that he (Appiah-Ampofo) had abused his office as a public officer and that his behaviour constituted a criminal offence. According to him, the implementation of the recommendations above would go a long way in giving real meaning to the Government’s policy of ‘zero tolerance for corruption.’

Mr Appiah-Ampofo was stripped naked in a series of publications by The Crusading Guide in respect of a deal that was struck between him and Aon, the insurance brokers that he brought in to replace Bowring, Ghanair’s former insurance brokers, although there were no complaints of inefficiency against them.