The Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice is ready to investigate bribery allegations in Parliament if petitioned, Deputy Commissioner Joseph Whital has said.
Nadowli Kaleo MP and former Majority and Minority Leader Alban Bagbin confessed at a workshop in Koforidua that some MPs take bribes from people and then come on the floor of Parliament to articulate the views of the people from whom those bribes were taken.
His comments have attracted lots of criticisms from the public with the Ghana Integrity Initiative [GII] appealing to the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice [CHRAJ] to investigate the matter.
The Deputy Commissioner at CHRAJ, Joseph Whital told Joy News’ Evans Mensah the Commission is following with keen interest the recent allegation of bribery against the MPs and would not mind investigating the matter.
He, however, threw the challenge back at persons seeking a CHRAJ investigation to come forward with a complaint.
Joseph Whital said if only such persons could “translate radio talk into doable things like [filing] a complaint” it will go a long way to help CHRAJ investigate the claims by Mr. Bagbin.
Executive Director of the GII, Vitus Adaboo Azeem, told Joy News merely responding to issues of corruption on radio does not give him the power to file a complaint with CHRAJ about the issues he comments on.
He said he was not at the Star Ghana Workshop where Bagbin made the allegation, neither has he any evidence to support any such allegation of bribery against MPs.
If anything, Azeem said the person who raised the issue and demanded answers from Bagbin at the Workshop must be made to file the complaint.
He said CHRAJ has the power to provide the person with a “whistle blower protection” in order for the person to file a complaint.
Azeem was however convinced that Mr. Bagbin’s claims are a case of “political corruption”.