The Minority on Tuesday, February 6 walked out of parliament in connection with a debate on the 146-page report by the five-member ad hoc committee regarding the cash-for-seat saga.
The Minority, led by Haruna Iddrisu, said there was no way they could debate such a hefty report when copies of it had just been given to them in the chamber, thus, the walkout.
In its report, the ad hoc committee said the Ministry of Trade and Industry did not extort monies from expatriate businesspeople to give them access to President Nana Akufo-Addo at an awards ceremony last year as claimed by the Minority in parliament.
The Speaker ordered a probe into the matter after a motion was filed by Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak and North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
In the report presented to parliament on Tuesday, 6 February, the committee said: “It has come to a conclusion that there is no merit in the allegations leveled against the Ministry of Trade and Industry as contained in the Motion and which culminated in the setting up of the Special Committee.”
The committee also recommended thus: “That the Controller and Accountant General and the Ministry of Finance should consider in the formulation of the new Regulation of the PFM Act, adequate provision to cater for public private partnership arrangement and emerging or contemporary issues.
“That there is a need to have a second look at the recall mechanism and ensure that it is not needlessly invoked at any time because of its mandatory nature in the Constitution. Upon a recall, Mr. Speaker may have to establish that there is a ‘prima facie’ case and if Mr. Speaker is not satisfied that there is a good reason for the summoning, he may dispense with the meeting. This test is likely to curtail frivolous and vexatious request for a recall.
“That the practice of some Members of Parliament trooping to the media to make allegations against highly placed officials must cease. The Committee is of the view that Members of Parliament who indulge in such acts ought not to be heard in Parliament if they should thereafter bring those matters before Parliament for Parliament to deliberate on the matter.”
The committee’s report, however, contrasts that of the two-member Minority members of the committee who indicted the Ministry of wrongdoing and accused Mr Ashim Morton, president of the Millennium Excellence Foundation – organisers of the awards – of forgery.
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