Publish Police report on Hadzide, Kwadwo Baah – Emile Short

A former head of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Justice Emile Short has backed calls for government to publish the report of the Police investigations that exonerated the deputy sports minister in the Australia visa scandal.

The deputy Sports Minister Pius Hadzide and board chairman of the National Sports Authority Kwadwo Baah Agyeman who were both suspended following the scandal have been reinstated by President Akufo-Addo.

A communication from the presidency – the Jubilee House – said the duo have been exonerated by the police report and can resume work.

“The report of the enquiry into the allegations, which was submitted to the President on Friday, 6th July, 2018, contained no adverse findings against them,” the Director of Communications at the presidency Eugene Arhin said in a statement.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday, Justice Short said it would have been appropriate for the state institutions that exonerated the individuals to announce their outcome instead of the President, as he did in Koforidua over the weekend.

“I would prefer that we have a full report of the investigation and the grounds on which the investigative body arrived at its conclusion which led to the exoneration of Pius Ahadzie. We shouldn’t focus on the President announcing the exoneration instead of the Investigating Body. The substance of the report should be a major concern,” he said.

Antigraft campaigners Vitus Azeem and Daniel Bartidam have also called on the government to publish the report in order to improve transparency in public administration.

Scores of Ghanaians were deported from Australia after they were deemed to be non-genuine travelers posing as journalists for the Commonwealth Games.

According to Australian authorities, although all the affected persons had the necessary accreditation, they were not convinced the reported persons were real journalists.

Following this, the government referred the case to the National Security for investigations following which the suspensions were made.