Parliamentary probe into ‘cash for seats’ begins

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, has described the collection of GH¢2.6 million from expatriate businessmen who sat close to the President at the recent Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) in Accra as not only morally unethical but also a conduit for corruption.

When he appeared before the five-member special committee set up by the Speaker of Parliament to investigate the issues surrounding the awards in Accra on Thursday, he said the practice where people could pay money to be able to sit at the presidential high table and have an exclusive dinner with the President should be a concern to all Ghanaians.

 “How would any person want to pay whopping sums of money just to go and sit close to the President and have an exclusive dinner with the President, if not for a possible discussion about how they could have an undue advantage in conducting their business?” he asked

 “We need to be concerned at a time we need to fight corruption and we do not have to create an avenue for such things to even possibly happen,” he added.

The committee, chaired by the Majority Chief Whip, Mr Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, who is also the MP for Sunyani East, is tasked to investigate the alleged levy and collection of various sums of money by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) from expatriate businesses during the GEBA event in Accra in December last year.

The committee is also to enquire if any payments were made and received, how disbursement was effected and whether such disbursement offended any law.

Besides, it is also tasked to investigate any relevant matters and recommend appropriate measures aimed at redressing violations that may have occurred and prevent such violation in the future.

It is required to submit its report to Parliament on January 24, 2018.

Right to access

Alhaji Muntaka said Ghanaians had the right of access to the President and MPs, the reason no person should make any financial contribution or payment to have access to the President.

“So if the Ministry of Trade and Industry now qualifies the payment of money as the basis by which it wants to facilitate and make it easy for anybody to have a dinner with the President, that is very unfortunate,” he said.

He also described the failure of the National Security to conduct thorough investigations into the incident as unfortunate.         

On how he obtained information on the saga, he said as an MP, with an oversight role over the government and its agencies, when he got the information on the saga, he raised the issue with Parliament’s Committee on Trade and Industry.

Confusing denials

At the sittings of the committee, he said, when enquiries were made about the organisation of the awards between MoTI and the Millennium Excellence Foundation, the Chief Director of the ministry, together with a Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, who represented Mr Alan Kyeremanteng, both denied knowledge of the collection of money from expatriate businesses.

He said on December 15, 2017, another Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, in an interview on an Accra radio station, Kasapa FM, also flatly denied the ministry ever collecting any money from expatriates.

“Mr Ahenkorah said all that the ministry did was to support the organisers of the awards and that the ministry was not part of the resource mobilisation.

“On December 17, 2017, the ministry released a press statement flatly denying again having anything to do with the resource mobilisation which, it said, was the sole responsibility of the foundation, at no cost to the taxpayer,” he said.

More contradictions

The Asawase legislator added that on December 19, 2017, in an interview on Joy FM, Mr Ahenkorah admitted that the ministry had, indeed, collected the money but returned everything collected to the foundation.

“In another press statement on December 23, 2017, the ministry created more confusion when it confirmed that an amount of GH¢2.67 million was raised, against an expenditure of GH¢2.36 million,” he said.

Alhaji Muntaka explained that in another letter signed by a deputy minister at the ministry, which was made available to the media, the foundation was requested to support the hosting of the awards event with “an attached benefits, while another letter indicated where individual expatriates were to send their cheques to the ministry”.

“In the December 17 statement, the foundation, upon conception of the event idea, informed the government, through the Presidency, and further sought partnership with the MoTI in the organisation of the maiden awards to reward contributions of expatriates and the naturalised expatriate community,” he said.

He, however, stated that the MoTI came out to say that neither the President nor any official of the Presidency, directly or indirectly, was involved with the event.

“This is confusing, as in one state the ministry said the whole idea started from the Presidency, while in another statement it said the Presidency had no connection with the event,” he pointed out.

The Minority Chief Whip indicated that the MoTI denied that any of the individuals or companies that sat on the presidential high table made a contribution of $100,000, an assertion that was contradicted by the Director of Communications of the MoTI, Mr Prince Boakye Boateng.

“In an interview granted on Monday on Starr FM, Mr Boateng said the government partnered the foundation, so that the private sector would know that the government was in full support of the event,” Alhaji Muntaka said.