The MP has accused the presidency of defying the country’s austere conditions to allocate a huge amount of 1.5 billion cedis – the highest ever allocation to the presidency in the history of the country.

This is in spite of the fact that, about one billion of the 1.5 billion is going to be used for several of the government’s special projects announced in the budget statement.

Speaking to Citi News’ Duke Mensah Opoku, the former Deputy Education Minister said there is no purpose tied to these funds especially when the governing NPP is claiming that the budget for several sectors has been cut down.

“The justification which honourable colleague Members of Parliament sought to provide cannot be justified. We are talking about a staggering 1.5 billion, an allocation of 1.5 billion cedis. If you look at the 2016 budget, the allocation to the office of government machinery was in the region of 700 million cedis. Now if you come to even combine 4 year allocations; 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015,if you combine all those allocations to the office of government machinery , you will get 1.3 billion. It is still less than 1.5 billion cedis which has been allocated in just one year to the office of government machinery, and the point I was making is that, this is the year that the President and the Finance Minister are appealing to Ghanaians that there are too many rigidities in the budget.”

Allocations meant for special projects

In response, the Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, explained on Eyewitness News that over one billion of the amount allocated to the presidency will be used for special projects.

“GHC 1.56 billion has been allocated to the office of the President, the question we are asking is that, what are we using it for?In this year, we are rolling out many fresh initiatives. One district,one factory; one village, one dam, the Zongo Development Initiative and all those special initiatives whose cost come up to about 1 billion, are all sitting in the budget of the office of the President so the 500 or so that Honourable Okudzeto is talking about is what is left for the office of the government machine to do the traditional things”

He wondered why Okudzeto Ablakwa will raise concerns about the amount of money going to the presidency when an excess of 700 million went to the same office just last year.

“…Just last year, after allocation, actuals, government allocated in excess of 700 million to the office of the President which is more than the 500 that we are allocating this year, so I find it very hard to understand why anybody will be interpreting this. It is lower than what was done last year.”

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

The post Allocating GHC 500m to presidency wrong – Ablakwa appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Lawyers in an official letter addressed to members of the 5-member ad-hoc committee tasked to investigate the alleged scandal, said : “we have been instructed by our client to convey to you, which we hereby do, his desire to appear before your committee to be heard on the above allegation and to provide evidence that would assist your Committee to reach a fair and true conclusion on this substantially important matter of public interest.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”U5XU7sRQ7HYieZfH3RKyANdd1nfozO3R”]The letter comes a day after the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joe Osei-Owusu ,told the committee he refused to push for investigations into the alleged scandal after Okudzeto Ablakwa indicated that the allegation was framed.

Speaking during the first public hearing of the ad-hoc committee, Mr. Owusu,  who was speaking as the first witness revealed that, when he initially raised the matter for discussion, Mr. Ablakwa trivialized the issue, saying the Minority made the allegation to equalize Mr. Agyarko’s corruption allegations leveled against former President Mahama during his vetting.

Mr. Ablakwa’s lawyers in the letter explained that, their request was premised on the fact that their client was not given any opportunity to substantiate and examine these claims.

“Our client further instructs us that, it has come to his notice that your committee has decided to limit the number of witnesses to be called to give evidence, and that he has not been named as one of such witnesses. However, in his testimony which was beamed live on television and which has been widely reported in the national print media, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Honourable Joseph Osei-Owusu, mentioned our client as having told him the bribery allegation was made up. Since our client was not given an opportunity to cross examine Hon. Joseph Osei-Owusu on this unsubstantiated piece of evidence, it would surely be in accord with the rules of natural justice that our client be heard in his own defence before your Committee.”

They further indicated that, they will advise their client to resort to other constitutional and legal options available if he is refused the opportunity to be heard by the committee.

The Chairman of the committee revealed on Wednesday that only four witnesses, excluding Okudzeto Ablakwa will be allowed to testify.

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

The post Ablakwa appeals to testify in bribery case; threatens committee appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

[contextly_sidebar id=”vl7H3aM52vdr8WEfTLlwRfp9PDaKmTJ3″]Speaking during the first public hearing of the ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged scandal, Mr. Owusu revealed that, when he initially raised the matter for discussion, Mr. Ablakwa trivialized the issue, saying the Minority made the allegation to equalize Mr. Agyarko’s corruption allegations leveled against former President Mahama during his vetting.

Narrating what actually transpired at the closed-door meeting, Mr. Osei-Owusu said : “In the conclave, after they had shown that they [Minority] were satisfied and were willing to withdraw their objection and agree for their report to be amended that Hon Osafo Maafo and Boakye Agyarko be passed by consensus, we were going to leave and I said no, there was this allegation already in the public domain, and Honourbale Ayariga is the one alleged to have made that allegation so we should discuss that matter after meeting, all the Minority members said was ‘Mr. Speaker cool down , cool down’ and I said ; ‘How can I cool down?This allegation is already in the public domain’. It was at that point that Okudzeto Ablakwa said ‘because Agyarko said our President [Mahama] was corrupt, we were spreading the corruption allegation’. The mood in the room changed afterwards.”

Mr. Osei-Owusu was however unable to tell whether Okudzeto was just joking or telling the truth when he made that statement.

Mr. Boakye Agyarko , Minister of Energy and Petroleum, has been accused of attempting to bribe 10 Minority members on Parliament’s Appointments Committee, with GHc 3,000 each, prior to his approval.

A five-member ad-hoc committee was subsequently set up by the Speaker of Parliament, Mike Oquaye, following a petition by three minority MPs namely Mahama Ayariga, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Alhassan Suhuyini, who have confirmed that the alleged bribery indeed occurred, hence their decision to ask for investigations, despite the denial by Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak and Mr. Osei-Owusu.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Okudzeto admitted bribery scandal was cooked up – Osei-Owusu appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament initially refused to swear in the Ghanaian delegation, because of some confusion over the membership of the delegation, when the House reopened for business last Friday.

[contextly_sidebar id=”3XJDOK99G24JZCtJKxMRcQUNheN0mEto”]Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Ablakwa said his “preliminary investigations point to some confusion on the part of the Majority side.

Mr. Ablakwa explained that, the Majority could have avoided the embarrassing situation if it had worked out details internally as he noted that, “per the formula we agreed, the Majority side had to send five members, and we [the Minority] send three members because we had eight seats to occupy on the ECOWAS parliament.”

“These are matters that the Majority side should have addressed internally. They should have sorted matters internally just as the minority side did before going out of our jurisdiction so that it does not appear that we went out there to wash our dirty linen in public and to give Ghana a bad name.”

“At this point, it is important to learn lessons. That is why I intend to raise the matter when the Foreign Affairs committee meets and I am hoping that colleagues on the committee will ask that leadership of the house looks into this matter with the view of preventing a recurrence,” the MP said.

Privileges Committee should investigate matter

The Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. Rashid Dramani, went a step further and said the Privileges Committee of Parliament was the appropriate body to look into the matter.

Also speaking on Eyewitness News, he described the process of constituting a delegation as “quite straight-forward” and said, “Parliament needs to look seriously into this matter because our country is better than this.”

“…I don’t know what happened and how you have a delegation constituted by our Parliament that goes to the ECOWAS parliament and there is confusion about the representation of some of the members. It beats my mind.”

He continued that, the Privileges Committee “is where this matter belongs to because if it is something that is bringing an embarrassment to our country and to our Parliament, I think that is the appropriate quarters where this matter can be looked into.”

Background

The confusion was sparked by the refusal of the MP for Suhum, Fred Opare Ansah to step down as a Member of the delegation, after he had served notice to continue as a member because he was still a member of Parliament in Ghana.

The Suhum MP had been a member of the ECOWAS Parliament until the Majority Leadership reconstituted the Ghanaian delegation with  O.B Amoah, MP for Akwapim South; Ama Pomaah Boateng Andoh MP for Juaben; Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Effutu MP; Kwabena Appiah-Pinkra MP for Akrofuom; MP for Anlo, Clement Kofi Humado; Mahama Ayariga, the Bawku Central MP and Sampson Ahi, MP for Bodi.

Ghana has eight seats in the ECOWAS Parliament, but by Mr. Opare Ansah’s refusal to step down, the Ghanaian delegation jumped to nine.

Mr. Afenyo-Markin later withdrew from the delegation to the ECOWAS.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Probe Ghana’s ‘day of shame’ at ECOWAS parliament – Ablakwa appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking to the media after vetting Minister Nominee for Gender and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, Mr. Ablakwa said: “I can tell you on authority that there were some NPP MPs who helped us blow the alarm, and gave us the hint about where the money is coming from.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”3waXJWW762Cp1TKYJnCByNRTZFCfU4dJ”]He however refused to mention the specific names of the NPP MPs involved.

The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga on Friday accused the Energy Minister nominee, Boakye Agyarko, of bribing the ten Minority Members of the Appointment Committee with GHC 3,000 each to influence them to approve his nomination.

Although the Chairman of the Appointment Committee, Joe Osei Owusu, and the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mohammed,  have denied the claims, Mr. Ayariga insists his allegation was not fabricated.

Mr. Ablakwa shot down claims that Members of the Appointment Committee have been receiving bribe from the nominees, saying “ I am not aware that we have ever received anything from a nominee. I will never accept anything from a nominee because it could be a trap. This will be the first time this is happening. Allowances are given to us by Parliament as an institution but we don’t charge anybody.”

“I can assure you that I have never received a dime from anybody. This is my fifth term, and I can say that since I started I have not received anything from a nominee. It doesn’t mean that we have been collecting monies from nominees.”

We’ll support investigations into bribery allegation – Haruna Iddrisu 

Meanwhile, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has declared his support for a full scale investigation into the bribery scandal.

According to him, the Speaker of Parliament and the leadership of the house must investigate the matter to establish its veracity.

He made the comments at the sitting of the committee today [Monday].

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

The post NPP MPs helped blow alarm on ‘bribery’ – Okudzeto appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.