[ 2017-03-20 ]

Bribery scandal: Another MP to give fresh evidence
The release of the Joe Ghartey committee report on
the bribery allegations that hit Parliament
recently may further delay, as a Member of the
House has applied to provide fresh evidence on the
matter to the Committee.

This comes at a time when the committee was just
about to wrap up on its investigations.

The 5-member Committee was set up following
allegations that the Energy Minister, Boakye
Agyarko, bribed some members of the Appointments
Committee of parliament to facilitate his approval
after appearing before it for vetting.

The second Deputy Majority Whip, Matthew Nyindam,
who confirmed the development to Citi News, said
although the deadline for the submission of the
report was due, the Committee would still have to
take the evidence of the interested party to
prevent suspicion of bias.

“We met last week on a business issue and I
raised that issue with the majority leader, and I
asked him when this Joe Ghartey thing 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.
According to the leader, a member said he has some
kind of evidence to tender in so they have to hold
on for him to bring it so that it doesn’t look
like somebody is fighting against the other.”

Matthew Nyindam, who remained tight-lipped on
which MP had made the fresh application, said the
report would be ready soon.

“It is true that the period given has expired,
and I don’t recollect vividly that the speaker
extended it, but the report is not ready. It is
not illegal; there is no illegality in this. The
only thing is that they would have gone to see the
speaker for an extension of time and the speaker
would have granted that,” he said.

Various civil society groups and individuals are
mounting pressure on the committee to release the
report on the matter which many say, has dented
the image of the legislative body.

Dr. Rashid Raman, the Executive Director of the
Africa Center for Parliamentary Affairs, has said
that the longer the delay in the release of the
report, the more likely Ghanainas will doubt the
accuracy of the findings when eventually
published.

Source - citifmonline.com

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