Chairman of the committee charged by the president to review the report of the Justice Chinery-Hesse Committee (CHC), Mr Ishmael Yamson, has dispelled notions that his committee did not have “good enough” interaction with all parties coming out with its report.

The Ishmael Yamson Committee (IYC), Mr Yamson indicated, met with all persons who mattered in the preparation of the CHC and that suggestions of poor show were rather unfortunate.

Mr Yamson who called into Joy FM’s news analysis programme Newsfile, was reacting, specifically, to a comment by Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, that Mr Yamson had only had a five-minutes’ conversation with Mrs Chinery-Hesse, followed by brief interactions at a later date.

Mr Baako had described that as “not good enough.”

But the IYC chairman maintained that, Mrs Chinery-Hesse, who he said was a long-time friend, had been mostly busy; but that notwithstanding, did not prevent the two from meeting to discuss issues relating to the CHC and the IYC.

What would have been their first meeting did not come off because the CHC chairman was flying out of the country but the two fixed a date during a lunch break together to speak over telephone, which they did, at least for a couple of hours.

President Mills appointed the IYC to review the CHC report on emoluments for ex-government officials after the “lavish” packages prescribed by the report triggered intense public outcry and pressure on government to take action.

Subletting to consultancy firm

Meanwhile a member of the CHC, Mr Fred Oware, has also played down comments that the committee engaged the services of a consortium to finalise the CHC report.

“It was never true that at any point in time that we abandoned the work and gave [it] to some group of consultants,” he told Newsfile host Kofi Ansah.

Such suggestions, he insisted, might have been spawned by the fact that Mrs Chinery-Hesse, who was chair of the committee, was appointed in 2006 as advisor to the President (Kufuor) and therefore had to disengage her services to the committee.

Mr Oware, who until recently was Chief Executive of the Bui Power Authority, said Mrs Chinery-Hesse’s exit from the committee had no effect on its work as it “had by then exhausted a lot of the principles, concepts and the information necessary to produce the final report.”

He also denied the IYC’s “finding” that there were two “Final” reports of the CHC.

Mr Oware said arguments advanced to suggest that the CHC report was in two versions – with significant differences – could not be sustained.

He said the CHC submitted draft copies of its report to Parliament and the presidency in December 2007 but did a final work – after further consultations on the advice of Parliament – which he submitted in June 2008 to the former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, for onward transmission to the legislature.

He insisted the IYC would have found less faults with procedure had members of the Yamson team consulted him when such purported observations were made later during the IYC’s work.

The IYC met with Mr Oware but that was during the early part of it’s assignment, Mr Oware intimated.


Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana