My trial by CHRAJ doesn't exist-Anane

Page 3, Feb 27, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE former Minister of Transportation, Dr Richard Anane, yesterday told the Appointments Committee of Parliament that as far as he was concerned, all the records concerning his purported investigation by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) did not exist.
At his second vetting by the committee, following his re-nomination by President Kufuor for the office he quit to contest CHRAJ in court, Dr Anane said the commissions investigations and findings had been quashed by the Supreme Court.
The President’s nomination of Dr Anane for the position he resigned from in 2006 to pursue his legal battle with CHRAJ attracted a lot of comments from various sections of the society, with some suggesting that the NPP government was short of men.
It was, therefore, not surprising that hundreds of people crammed into the small Speaker’s Conference Room to be part of that historic second appearance of Dr Anane before the Appointments Committee.
The high point came when the Minority Leader and MP for Nadowli West, Mr Alban Bagbin, took his turn and enquired from the nominee whether in his own heart he still wanted to be the Minister of Transportation.
“If it is the wish of the President that I should serve in that capacity, so be it,” Dr Anane replied, explaining that as a team player, he would want to play his part in whatever role the coach (the President) would assign him.
Bagbin: Why do you think the President still wants you to serve in that ministry?
Anane: It is the President who is in charge and I, therefore, cannot question his decision.
Mr Bagbin then zeroed in on Dr Anane’s appearance before CHRAJ and the Supreme Court.
Although Dr Anane asked the committee to let the matter between him and his American mistress be a family affair, he said later that he had filed a suit at a Florida Family Tribunal to streamline the way he remitted his son to “avoid the money I give for the upkeep of my child being considered as a gift”.
On why he was still occupying his official bungalow, the nominee said as an MP he was entitled to a residence.
At the end of it, what had been thought to be a difficult task for the nominee turned out to be a two-hour session during which most members of the committee concentrated on how Dr Anane would ensure that abandoned road projects in their constituencies were tackled should he be given the nod.
To those concerns, Dr Anane said the orientation of the ministry would be value for money, warning that the ministry would not spare any official of agencies which colluded with contractors involved in shoddy works to get away with their misdeeds.
He said the government was poised to open up the country through massive road construction and rehabilitation to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas.
He said the government believed that it was through such a policy that it would ensure accelerated development across the country and eventually avoid the drifting of the youth to the urban areas in search of non-existent jobs.
What now remains to be done is for the committee to submit its report to the entire House, in which it will specify whether the nominee has been approved or not.
Dr Anane was made the Minister of Health when President Kufuor assumed power in 2001, until November the same year when he was reshuffled to be the Minister of the then Ministry of Roads and Transport.
In 2005, when President Kufuor won his second term, Dr Anane was maintained as the Minister of Road Transport, which was later re-designated as Ministry of Transportation, until he resigned in October 2006 to pursue his legal battle.