THE PARLIAMENTARY APPOINTMENT COMMITTEE AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS ON THE IMAGE OF OUR BURGEONING DEMOCRACY
The legislature is a strong arm of government as it fuels the machinery of government by formulating laws, approving budgets, illegality .vetting nominees as well as having authority equal to that of a high court when it comes to ad-hoc issues.Ideally, such institutions of State are required to be devoid of corruption and all sort of illegality.Very often than not we hear issues of bribery and corruption involving State institutions but we treat them as mere passing stories.
But some few days into the 7th parliament under the tutelage of Prof.Mike Ocquaye we woke up one day to this bombshell from a lawyer and a parliamentarian Mr.Mahama Ayariga alleged on Radio Gold on the 27th of January,2017 that the minority caucus of the Parliamentary vetting Committee had received an amount of 3000 Ghana cedis each and was given to them by the Minority chief whip Hon.Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak .
According to Hon.Ayariga Hon.Muntaka said those monies came from the chairman of the vetting committee Hon.Joe Osei Owusu only for them to hear that it was coming from Mr Boakye Agyarko Energy minister-designate at the time whose approval had hit a snag due to his alleged claims that the I.M.F breathe down the neck of President John Mahama and him ( Hon.Ayariga) said that they returned the amount.
Later, those who were alleged to have offered the bribe that is Mr.Boakye Agyarko, sweared Hon.Muntaka Mubarak and Hon.Joe Osei Owusu had denied this claim.It was even on record that Hon.Muntaka sweared by the Quran that he had never received any money from the vetting committee chairman , while Mr.Boakye Agyarko also denied and said that he would sue Hon.Ayariga on the said matter.
This unsubstantiated claims infact has marred the work and outlook of the 7th Parliament, hence it was necessary for an adhoc committee to be set up based on the Standing Orders of Parliament so as to ascertain the truth of this scandal.Let me engage your audience on this note.
Legally, it is widely posited that he that alleges must prove that is Rule 131 Rules of Court Burden of Proof and Presumption and stemming from the fact that Mr.Ayariga is a lawyer by profession it defies logic for him to make an allegation like this without any proof.
It is on record that Mr.Ayariga claimed that he made the allegation on the grounds of hearsay.
On wednesday, the ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the bribery allegation commenced hearing and it was agreed that there would be only 4 witnesses for now namely Hon.Joe Osei Owusu, Mr.Boakye Agyarko, Hon.Ayariga and Hon.Muntaka except that one writes to witness through a memorandum and it is accepted by the committee.
Looking critically, it lacks the content of proof hence it would prove herculean for the committee to solely rely on oral presentations because Hon.Joe Osei Owusu said that in a conclave meeting Hon.Okudjetor Ablakwa said that the claim was made just for equalization sake because the then Energy minister designate had made corruption claims about former President Mahama.
I would not go into the nitty gritty's of the issue because the committee has the power of a high court hence saying anything illegal about it would amount to contempt.
But as a citizen ,I will urge all the parties involved to work harder and in a just manner because the integrity of persons and the law making body of government is being dragged in the mud, any divergence of justice and fairness would bring a bad image to our burgeoning democracy hence lets all fight to promote and protect our State institutions.
I would conclude by urging professionals to be smart enough and abide by the codes that govern their work, stemming from the fact that the key witness is a lawyer so making an allegation so wild as this should provide us with material evidence. Lastly the vetting committee should not be a platform for demonizing nominees and not for equalization purposes, also if they as committee members have been accepting gifts previously this should serve as a caution to our parliament because we need them to be free from corruption and bribery issues as they fuel government machinery.
SOURCE:WWW.SEEBGH.COM |CREDIT: Arthur Fiifi Herbert.
