Former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has insisted that former Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo cannot escape responsibility for questionable payments uncovered in the Judicial Service.
“The Chief Justice cannot claim ignorance about the said payments under question. The buck stops with her as head of the Judicial Service,” Mr. Ansa-Asare said on The Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, September 6,
His remarks come in the wake of the removal of Justice Torkornoo from office by President John Dramani Mahama, following the findings of an Article 146 Committee that probed allegations of financial misconduct.
The committee concluded that the former Chief Justice had unlawfully used public funds to cover the costs of two trips in September 2023 — one to Tanzania with her husband, and another to the United States with her daughter.
Adding his voice, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, said the misconduct revealed in the committee’s report was so grave that, in other jurisdictions, it could have warranted jail time.
“Listening to all the arguments, I found out that they also relied on the fact that she got herself an imprest, which actually she was not supposed to spend,” he said during an interview with Selorm Adonoo on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue.
Cudjoe dismissed any claims that Justice Torkornoo should be excused for depending on financial officers for guidance.
“The argument that she should have been guided by a finance officer, because she didn’t know, is neither here nor there.”
