Court orders reinstatement of two officials

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 (Page 3)

THE Human Rights Court in Accra yesterday ordered the Civil Service Council to reinstate two officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports who accused a former minister of financial impropriety.
Granting an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the council to interdict Mr Adim Odoom, who was the ministry’s Principal Accountant, and Albert Kwadwo Agyepong, the then Chief Director, the court restrained the respondent from interdicting the two applicants on the same matter in future.
An Accra Fast Track High Court, in two separate rulings in November and December, 2009, declared that the directive from the President requesting for the interdiction of the two officials was unlawful and accordingly ordered their reinstatement and payment of their salary arrears.
However, when the two reported for work, they were not assigned any duties and subsequently, the Civil Service Council wrote to them asking them to explain their role in the disbursement of $20,000 alleged to have been paid to Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, a former minister at the ministry.
Consequently, their solicitor, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, wrote to the Council enquiring whether that letter marked the commencement of disciplinary proceedings against the two applicants, but the Council did not reply.
The Council rather followed up with a letter interdicting the applicants on the grounds that their failure to respond to queries amounted to an interference with the investigations.
Following that action, Mr Dame filed an application against the Attorney-General seeking a declaration that the Council’s decision to interdict his clients was unlawful because disciplinary proceedings had not yet been commenced against his clients as required by the Civil Service Act.
He also prayed for an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the Council as well as grant an order of mandamus to compel the Council to allow the applicants to resume normal duties, as well as an order of prohibition restraining future interdiction of the applicants.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice U. P. Dery, granted all the reliefs on the grounds that the decision by the Council to interdict the applicants was unlawful because the right procedures were not followed.
He accordingly awarded costs of GH¢5,000 against the Council in favour of each of the applicants.
Messrs Odoom and Ampong were interdicted and ordered to proceed on leave on July 7, 2009 after National Security had investigated their allegations of financial impropriety against Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, the then Minister of Youth and Sports.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of investigations and their subsequent interdiction, the two filed separate applications for judicial review, challenging their interdiction, which were granted by the Fast Track High Court.