North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has lauded the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), for dismissing preliminary objections raised by the Finance Minister and the Secretary of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng regarding an amount of GH¢2.6 million paid to JNS Talent, a company owned by Rev. Kusi Boateng.
The ruling, according to Mr. Ablakwa, makes CHRAJ the strong institution Ghana needs to develop.
“I want to commend CHRAJ for the encourage. We have always talked about having strong institutions. It is not easy for a constitutional body to look at; if you like, prominent Ghanaians and overrule their objections. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, everybody knows [he’s] a very powerful relative of the president. You have all these Boards of Trustees Prof. Opoku Oyinah, and others who all filed objections. The other respondents – Adu-Gyamfi, Kusi Boateng, and others. So, I want to commend CHRAJ,” he said on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Friday, July 28.
“We need strong institutions and they need to be encouraged that the Ghanaian people are strongly behind them. They should not be intimidated at all. They should not fear whoever tries to stop them in pursuing their constitutional mandate,” Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa added.
In January 2023, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa requested that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) look into allegations of conflict of interest, the use of multiple identities, and other alleged criminal activity against Rev. Victor Kusi-Boateng, Secretary of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees.
The petition, which the two Deputy Commissioners of CHRAJ received, further stated that Rev. Kusi-Bateng, under his other name, Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, transferred GH2.6 million in cash from the National Cathedral Secretariat to JNS Talent Centre Limited, a company he owns.
Prior to concluding investigations, CHRAJ dismissed preliminary objections raised by the Finance Minister and the Secretary of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng regarding the said GH¢2.6 million paid to JNS Talent.
CHRAJ stated in its ruling that it will continue with its investigations into the complaint filed by the North Tongu MP.
“It is therefore clear that although a company is a separate legal entity from its members and officers, there are instances under which the corporate veil will be pierced. This is to enable one to go behind the mere status of the company as a separate legal entity distinct from its shareholders/members and to allow one to consider who are the persons, shareholders, or even agents, directing and controlling the activities of the company.
“It is the case of the Complainant that the National Cathedral of Ghana has by its board, indulged in procurement breaches and as such, it is only right that in the interest of public policy, the Board be made a party to this investigation so as to ensure an efficient and expeditious exercise. For the above-enunciated reasons, the preliminary objections raised by the Respondents are overruled and the Commission will thus continue with its investigations in the matter.”
