Joseph Whittal – CHRAF Boss
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has dismissed a complaint filed by pro-NDC group, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) against Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang of the Supreme Court, over assets declaration.
ASEPA had filed a complaint in June last year, claiming that the judge had “failed to make a declaration of his assets and liabilities as required of him” under the 1992 Constitution.
They pushed that Justice Pwamang had breached Article 287 of the Constitution and the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act, 1998 (Act 550) and must be investigated.
CHRAJ said it carried out investigations into the complaint in line with its processes and procedures, and it established that “upon his appointment to the Supreme Court on June 30, 2015, the judge “made his first declaration of assets and liabilities on November 18, 2015 and then a second declaration was made after four years, as required by the Constitution and Act 550.”
According to the CHRAJ report, “the investigations, however, revealed that the Office of the Auditor General, in March 2020, suspended the collection of Assets Declaration Forms from public servants on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and this affected the time of the filing of the second declaration, which was otherwise made within the time frame of the law.”
Consequently, by its decision dated February 15, 2021, and signed by Mr. Richard Quayson, Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, the Commission “dismissed the complaint against Justice Gabriel Pwamang as unsubstantiated.”