[ 2017-01-30 ]

Boakye Agyarko, Minister of Energy

Neutral body must probe bribery saga - Draman
Investigations into the alleged bribery scandal
that hit the Appointments Committee of parliament
should not done by parliament given that the
leadership of the legislature is implicated in the
matter, Dr Rasheed Draman, Executive Director of
the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs, has
said.

According to him, the public’s confidence in the
ability of parliament to handle this matter has
been eroded especially because of the alleged
involvement of the leadership in the matter, hence
a body other than the legislature must be tasked
to investigate the matter and submit the report to
parliament.

On Friday, 27 January, Bawku Central Member of
Parliament Mahama Ayariga alleged that Boakye
Agyarko, Minister of Energy, whose approval was
frozen pending the determination of certain
issues, dished out GHS3000 as bribe to each of the
Minority members on the committee with the aim to
influence them so they approve his nomination
without further delay.

Mr Ayariga claimed the money was given to
Committee Chair Joe Osei-Owusu by Mr Agyarko who
in turn channelled it through Minority Chief Whip
Muntaka Mubarak to the MPs, who, according to the
Bawku Central MP, subsequently rejected it.

Mr Muntaka has vehemently denied Mr Ayariga’s
claims, saying: “I never gave any money to
Ayariga.”

Commenting on this matter in an interview with
Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on
Accra100.5FM on Monday January 30, Mr Draman said:
“This doesn’t do any good to the image of
parliament, it is certainly a bad moment for
parliament. Now it’s his (Ayariga’s) word
against the leadership of parliament or against
the institution, so I will hope that whatever it
is, we need to get the truth, we need to get to
the bottom of this issue so that at the end of the
day we will know whether Honourable Ayariga is
speaking the truth or it’s the institution that
is speaking the truth.

“I would suggest, going forward on this issue,
perhaps there needs to be an institution outside
of parliament that should look into this because I
don’t believe a lot of people have confidence in
any internal processes that can deal with this,
particularly because the leadership of parliament
is involved

“We don’t have to be emotional about these
things. Let an investigation be carried out and
let the facts be established because as for
position, everybody can take a position… If
investigations conducted, then at least the facts
will be established and then maybe the leadership
of parliament can take a decision on that.

“I think the Speaker must act on this matter.
That is why I said we need an outside body that,
at least, at the end of the day will report to
parliament, an outside body that will conduct an
investigation that is open and transparent so that
everybody can follow what is going on.”

Source - classfmonline.com

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