The Member of Parliament for Bole Bamboi, Hon John Mahama, has cautioned that any rush to amend the Whistleblower Act could deter informants from actually blowing the whistle on wrong.
His comment follows moves by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joe Ghartey for an amendment to the Act to include punishment for people who provide misleading information.
Addressing a news conference on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ's ruling on corruption allegations against former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyeremanten, Mr. Joe Ghartey said with the benefit of hindsight, it is important to make changes to the law to protect informants and at the same time provide for punishment for those who give wrong information.
CHRAJ dismissed all seven allegations against the former Minister because they were baseless. However it expressed regret that the petitioner had his identity widely publicized in the media, a situation the Attorney-General said defeated the purpose of the Act which seeks to protect the identity of informants.
The Attorney-General says having tested the law in the Alan Kyeremanten case, it is clear these critical matters were not properly considered prior to the passage of the Act. But Mr. Mahama is warning against drawing any conclusions based on the Allan Kyeremanten case because it is not a good enough test case.
Mr. Mahama said the instant case was not test enough for the Act because while the Act seeks to protect informants against victimization particularly in their employment, the complainant in the case, as a former board member of the EDIF Fund, was no longer in its employment to be victimized by anybody.
John Mahama maintained that the complainant against Alan also made no attempt to hide his identity after granting interviews to the media and that failing cannot be used as a measure to warrant a revision of the newly passed law.
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