[ 2017-03-21 ]

Joe Ghartey is the chairman of the committee set to investigate the bribery allegations

Fresh evidence stalls Joe Ghartey Committee’s report
The First Deputy Majority chief whip, Matthew
Nyindam, has revealed that fresh evidence from a
witness has temporarily stalled the work of the
five-member ad hoc committee set up by parliament
to look into the bribery allegation made against
leadership of the Appointments Committee by some
members of the committee.

The five-member ad hoc committee headed by former
second deputy speaker of parliament and New
Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Essikado/Ketan, Joe
Ghartey, was about to wrap up its work, but Mr
Matthew Nyindam, who was speaking on the sidelines
to the media after parliament had briefly met
yesterday, said one of the witnesses who appeared
before the committee to testify had come up with a
fresh evidence which would take the work of the
committee back a bit.

He, however, did not mention the name of the said
witness.

The committee was constituted in the first week of
February by the speaker of parliament after a
member of the Appointments Committee and National
Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Bawku Central,
Mahama Ayariga, had made a damning allegation on
radio that each of the minority members on the
committee had been given GH¢3,000 to help approve
the nomination of the then minister-designate for
Energy, Boakye Agyarko.

The minority members had said they would not
approve of his nomination because he (Agyarko) had
indicted former President John Mahama for
supervising unprecedented corruption in the energy
sector, implying that former President Mahama was
also corrupt.

Mahama Ayariga said the money was given to them by
the then minister-designate for Energy and was
rooted through the minority chief whip, Mohammed
Mubarak Muntaka, who did the distribution but the
minority chief whip had flatly denied ever
receiving money from anybody, let alone distribute
to members of the minority on the Appointments
Committee.

In order to cleanse parliament’s image, the
speaker of parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye,
constituted the five-member committee made up of
NPP MP for Essikado/Ketan, Joe Ghartey; NPP MP for
Offinso South, Ben Abdallah Banda; NPP MP for
Juaben, Ama Pomaa Boateng; NDC MP for Yilo Krobo,
Magnus Kofi Amoatey and NDC MP for Talensi, Benson
Tongo Baba, to thoroughly look into the bribery
allegation and for the committee to report back to
the plenary for action to be taken.

The committee was given four weeks to complete its
work but somewhere along the line, the committee
asked for extension of time to be able to do a
thorough job.

The first deputy majority chief whip, who is also
the MP for Kpandai, said the witness had filed for
his fresh evidence to be taken by the committee.

“We met last week at the Business Committee and
I raised that issue with the majority leader and I
asked him when this Joe Ghartey thing (report)
will be ready because the public is interested. We
are also interested as a house because it is an
alleged issue and we all have to clear it,” he
said.

According to DAILY GUIDE sources, the committee
recently relocated to a place at Aburi in the
Eastern Region to finalise its report.

At a recent press conference, the majority leader,
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, assured the nation that
the committee would soon finish its work and that
members of the public should exercise patience.

So far, chairman of the Appointments Committee,
Joseph Osei-Owusu, and deputy ranking member,
Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, whom the Bawku Central
MP, Mahama Ayariga, had accused of distributing
the said money, have strongly denied the
allegation made against them.

Source - dailyguideafrica.com

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