They are expected to provide the committee with vital details of the structure of the Awards, and processes leading to the alleged collection of monies from participants.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GQKYQv0oRjlNH0nOiGNQwQ5wJqn2bzOY”]The 5-Member Committee chaired by Majority Chief Whip, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, commenced its public hearings last Thursday by receiving submissions of the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, who first made the allegation, and North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Muntaka defended his allegation before the Committee, but told Citi News that he felt some of the Committee members sought to discredit him by their style of questioning.

Okudzeto Ablakwa also firmly justified his claims that indeed the Ministry extorted monies from the expatriates. He called for an independent audit of the accounts used by the organizers of the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards (GEBA) ceremony, which was held in December 2017.

The Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyeremanteng, subsequently took his turn before the committee on Friday.

He denied allegations of wrongdoing in his submissions. While admitting that some individuals paid monies in connection with the event, he insisted those amounts were not to enable them to sit close to the President.

He said people sat on the high table with the President without paying anything for it.

Background

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, first made the extortion allegation in Parliament in December 2017.

Mr. Mubarak said the fees charged at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry’s accounts.

The issue was further reinforced by Mr. Ablakwa, who suffered verbal assaults from Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah over the matter.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry initially dissociated itself from these allegations.

The Trade Ministry, in a statement said it played no role in determining prices for seats at the event, and clarified that it only facilitated the implementation of a new initiative by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

But the Ministry after an order from the President to probe the matter, clarified that an amount of GHc 2,667,215 was realized from the event.

The organizers of the Awards had also explained that no one paid to sit close to the President, and that the amount raised was gotten from sponsorship through a fundraising at the event.]

The Minority moved a motion in Parliament for a further probe into the matter, and this forced the Speaker to recall MPs from their recess, leading to the formation of the Committee.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Expatriates saga: Event organizers appear before c’ttee today appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Chairman of the Committee, Ameyaw Kyeremeh, who gave the advice in his opening remarks at the committee’s first public sitting today [Thursday], said: “As we are about to commence work or proceedings in this respect, it is our wish that we all refrain from making statements that are likely to prejudice the work and the outcome of the committee.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”JvRoeeBJmDrbTqaem4dqwbAgoqIsILS5″]The Committee has three members of the Majority namely Ameyaw Kyeremeh, Majority Chief Whip, who is the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Assibey Yeboah, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, and Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, MP for Adentan.

On the Minority side are James Klutsey Avedzie, Deputy Minority Leader, and Dominic Ayine, the MP for Bolgatanga East.

The committee will mainly focus on:

• Investigating the alleged levy and collection of sums of money by the Ministry of Trade and Industry from expatriate businesses

• Inquiring whether any payments were made or received, and if so how disbursement was effected, and whether any disbursements offended any law

• Recommending any relevant related matters

• Recommending appropriate measures aimed at redressing violations if any that may have occurred, and the prevention of any such violations in the future.

The committee is expected to report to Parliament on January 24, 2018.

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, who made the first appearance before the committee, provided several documents including news items from online news portals and elsewhere, to buttress his claims of extortion by the Ministry.

Background

The extortion allegations was first made in Parliament by the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, in December 2017.

According to him, some of the expatriates were charged as much as $100,000 to sit close to the President.

Mr. Mubarak said the fees charged were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry’s accounts.

The issue was further reinforced by Mr. Ablakwa, who suffered verbal attack from Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah over the matter.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry initially dissociated itself from these allegations.

In a statement, the Ministry said it played no role in determining prices for seats at the event, and clarified that it only facilitated the implementation of a new initiative by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

But the Ministry after an order from the President to probe the matter, clarified that an amount of GHc 2,667,215 was realized from the event.

The organizers of the Awards had also explained that no one paid to sit close to the President, and that the amount raised was gotten from sponsorship through a fundraising at the event.

–

By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post Expatriates saga: C’ttee members warned against prejudicial comments appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The members of the Committee, however, sat yesterday [Monday], to set out the modalities for their work.

[contextly_sidebar id=”oPxQqiBRGqWhZYbcoqGqhvIYpjGBMIoJ”] The Member of Parliament for Adenta and a member of the Committee, Yaw Buaben Asamoah, confirmed this on Eyewitness News, adding that they were ready to thoroughly probe the issue in the best interest of the nation.

“We sat to establish the framework for delivering the onerous duty that Parliament has given us to discharge on behalf of the whole House. The Speaker in his wisdom decided that this matter is dealt with as thoroughly as possible by a bi-partisan Committee. That is progress, we haven’t had that opportunity for several years. We sat and set out the modalities,” he said

Questions had been raised as to whether the Committee’s sittings would be open to the public, as had been the case during the investigations into the alleged bribery of members of the Appointments Committee in 2017.

However, the Adentan MP clarified that the Committee’s sessions would be open to the public, with the first sitting set for Thursday.

He also stated that the Committee will invite members of the Minority who had called for the probe into the matter, the Ministry of Trade and any other parties that might be involved, to give their submissions on the issue.

“We’re going to have a public hearing which is akin to what we saw before and we’re starting on Thursday, and we’re going to invite the proponents of the motion as well as the Ministry about who the motion was made and to the extent that other parties are relevant, we’ll extend our arms towards them,” he said.

‘Terms of reference’ 

The Minority had expressed concerns after Parliament’s emergency sitting last week that the terms of reference for the Committee had not been spelt out by the Speaker when it was convened.

However, Mr. Buaben Asamoah dismissed these worries stating that the Committee was working with clearly defined terms of reference which had originated from the motion submitted by the Minority themselves.

“We are going to investigate the alleged levy and collection of sums of money from the expatriate Community by the Ministry of Trade. Secondly, we are going to determine whether the payments were made, how, when and where they were paid out. We are also going to investigate collateral matters, any relevant issues and whether or not anything was done at variance with the law as far as levying or payment of those monies were concerned. We are covered. We do have terms of reference,” he added.

‘Incompetent motion’

There was a heated argument on the floor of parliament when the House sat to consider the motion filed by the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed.

The debate came about after the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, described the motion as incompetent.

The Majority Leader had argued that, the motion calling for the special sitting and an ad-hoc committee, was not properly done and thus constituted a “gross abuse of the processes of the House,” a claim Haruna Iddrisu vehemently rejected.

After a suspension of sitting fo about an hour, the Speaker of Parliament announced that the Committee would be formed ‘in the nation’s best interests,’ and invited the Majority and the Minority Leaders to present their nominees for the ad-hoc committee.

Despite attempts to raise concerns about the Committee’s terms of reference, both the Majority and Minority were rebuffed by the Speaker who refused to let either side make any further submissions on the Committee.

While the Minority was satisfied with the formation of the Committee, the Majority leader expressed reservations about not being allowed to express the issues his side had.

–

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Expatriates saga: Ad-hoc committee holds public sitting Thursday appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Parliament is being reconvened early after the Minority wrote to the Speaker urging him to call for an emergency sitting over claims that  expatriates were charged huge amounts by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in order for them to sit close to the President at the recent Ghana Expatriates Business Awards in Accra.

[contextly_sidebar id=”lVco1A7zEyNXBtapfDl68DmhP3htsPDL”]Days after the Minority’s letter to the Speaker, a memo has been issued calling on Members of Parliament to report for sitting in the first week of January, well ahead of the expected resumption date much later in January.

The memo said, “In pursuance of article 112 (3) of the constitution of the Republic and Orders of Parliament, I Right Honourable Professor Michael Aaron Oquaye, Speaker of Parliament, do hereby summon Parliament to sit on Friday, the 5^th Day of January, 2018 at twelve o’clock noon, at Parliament House, Accra.”

Although the Speaker did not state the reason for the emergency call, the acting Director of Public Affairs in Parliament, Kate Addo, said that the sitting was to consider the Minority’s letter to the Speaker earlier this week.

According to the Minority, expatriates at the Awards event were charged between $25,000 and $100,000 to sit close to the President.

Background

The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, first made the allegation in Parliament.

Mr. Mubarak said the fees charged at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry’s accounts.

The issue has further been reinforced by Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Okudzeto Ablakwa, who suffered verbal assaults from Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah over the matter.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has already dissociated itself from these allegations.

The Trade Ministry, in a statement, said it played no role in determining prices for seats at the event, and clarified that it only facilitated the implementation of a new initiative by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post MPs summoned to emergency sitting over ‘extortion’ of expatriates appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.