This follows a petition by the former Secretary to the Management Board of the Factory, Ransford Vanni-Amoah, accusing Mr. Lindsay of perjury.

Speaking to Citi News, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, James Avedzi, said the deputy minister could lose his position if such claims turn out to be true.

According to Vanni-Amoah, a former member and secretary of the Komenda Sugar Project Management Board, the Deputy Minister committed perjury when he appeared before the PAC to provide answers to a report by the Auditor General pertaining to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

He petitioned the PAC, citing events, places and dates that the $35 million Komenda Sugar factory operated, asserting that the Deputy Trade Minister told a blatant lie in his submission to the Committee.

“The petitioner is saying that this is not the true fact. He is saying that actual sugarcane was put into the process from the beginning up to the end which means that Sugar Produced from sugar cane, but that is not the position held by the minister [Ahomka Lindsay],” Mr. Avedzi said.

The PAC Chair added that matter could end up in Parliament if the deputy minister did not show the needed remorse should it be demanded of him.

“If it is found that it [the allegation] is true, and he has admitted that what he said was not true, we will give him the opportunity to apologise and if he refuses to apologise then we will refer the matter to Parliament because it amounts to perjury and he can even lose his position as a minister.”

The committee is still studying the petition at the moment and it hasn’t “taken a decision to invite the minister yet,” Mr. Avedzi added.

When the current New Patriotic Party government was in opposition at the time of the factory’s commissioning, the viability of the $35 million-factory was called into question, with claims it was simply a vote-buying ploy.

Mr. Ahomka Lindsey repeated these concerns, suggesting that Komenda Sugar Factory will lie idle longer than expected, due to challenges such as the lack of raw materials, which has salled full operations.

He has claimed that the variety of sugarcane planted on lands secured for sugar production at Komenda did not contain the appropriate levels of sugar content for production, though persons from the Mahama administration disputed these claims.

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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Komenda Sugar Factory: Ahomka Lindsay to face PAC over perjury appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay’s speech at the Ghana Diaspora meeting in Accra, garnered lots of attention after he appeared to show displeasure at diasporans who ‘whined’ about everything they felt was not going well in the country.

“Nobody likes whiners, people that spend all the time whining really get on people’s nerves so stop whining,” the deputy Minister is quoted as having said.

Responding to the public backlash which followed the address, the Deputy Minister stated that the comments he made were as a result of his personal experience and was in no way an attack on diasporans.

“None of my comments were meant to cast aspersions. They were an expression of my personal experience,” the statement said.

“I wish to assure the people of Ghana and all those who have been offended by my comments that I did not in any way intend to sound offensive in my presentation.”

Find below, the full statement by  Robert Ahomka-Lindsay:

13th July 2017

STATEMENT ON MY SPEECH ON DIASPORA MEETING 

I refer to recent discussions on a 2 to 3-minute clip from my 14-minute speech given at the Ghana Diaspora meeting in Accra. The clip is a complete misrepresentation of the speech and taken completely out of context.

I was asked to give my candid opinion on my experience as a Diaspora returnee and how I would advise others who intend to make a similar journey. My speech was in 5 parts:
1. Your approach to trying to get results in Ghana
2. What you should expect when you make the move to Ghana
3. The opportunities available for you in Ghana
4. The rewards for perseverance
5. The next steps

The clip being shown referred to section 1 of the speech. Listening to it independent of the other three sections gives a completely different meaning to the speech I would implore all that want to get a true picture of my speech to look at it on YouTube.

None of my comments were meant to cast aspersions. They were an expression of my personal experience. I wish to assure the people of Ghana and all those who have been offended by my comments that I did not in any way intend to sound offensive in my presentation. I hold all Ghanaians in the greatest respect and would not in any way do or say anything that would impugn their integrity.

Robert Ahomka-Lindsay.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post My comments weren’t meant to offend – Ahomka-Lindsay appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.