Crime & Punishment of Friday, 21 October 2005

Source: GNA

My daughter's documents were tampered with - Ansa-Asare

Accra, Oct. 21, GNA - Mr Kwaku Ansa-Asare, Director of the Ghana School of Law (GSL), said on Friday that documents that were tendered to prove that his daughter was improperly registered to pursue a Post-Call Law Course in the school had been tampered with.
He said certain facts had been taken out of the documents while others had been re-arranged to make it seem as though his daughter's registration was fraudulent.
Mr Ansa-Asare said this when he appeared before the Committee of Inquiry, which is investigating allegations of abuse of office and corruption against him.
He said it was also untrue that his daughter did not qualify to pursue the Post-Call Law Course.
The GSL Director said it was worth noting that all the institutions that his daughter attended which qualified her to pursue the Post-Call Course, had written to all relevant bodies and institutions including the Committee to confirm that.
Touching on an allegation that the GSL once paid for hotel bills for staff of Read Wide, a company he owns, Mr Ansa-Asare said it was a blatant lie.
He said the Committee could crosscheck with both the GSL and the hotel in question to find out the truth from their records.
Mr Ansa-Asare said he had stopped using the telephone in his official Labone residence since October 2002 and expressed surprise at the allegation that the GSL had paid millions of cedis on phone bills covering his residence.
The GSL Director said he believed that some Lecturers at the school wanted to get back at him for insisting that the School would only pay for telephone bills in their offices up to a point. He said this was a measure he took at the GSL to check the misuse of telephones meant for official purposes.
Reacting to an allegation that he had refused to grant a staff member study leave with pay, Mr Ansa-Asare said it was the General Legal Council's decision that the staff should serve at least five years before being given another study leave since he had enjoyed the facility on several occasions.
Mr Ansa-Asare said he wondered why a fact, which was well known to the General Legal Council (GLC), had to be investigated as if it was a secret.
He said with the Attorney-General being aware of the decisions of the GLC, he wondered why he set up the Committee to investigate matters that were already known by him adding that he strongly believed that he was being set up. Sitting continues on Tuesday.