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Parliament Finance Committee member Isaac Adongo says he is happy that Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu focused on the Transaction Adviser and how he was appointed.
According to Adongo, the Finance Ministry team assigned certain responsibilities to the Transaction Adviser that made him act as if the people of Ghana abdicated their responsibilities to him.
On August 6, 2018, under the instructions of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Deputy Finance Minister Charles Adu Boahen signed a Mandate Agreement with Imara TA to exclusively advise and assist the government in the transaction, as a Transaction . Advisor (TA).
The member of parliament from Bolgatanga Central stated that he found it astonishing to learn that the appointment of the transaction advisor, which is very important to the Agyapa deal, was never part of the request submitted to parliament.
“We never had the opportunity to deal with the Transaction Advisor, that is the reason we abstained from the transaction because we did not have the correct information to make the decision,” he said.
Speaking with Evans Mensah of JoyNews, Isaac Adongo stated that the Finance Ministry co-signed the responsibility of its entity bidding committee with the Transaction Advisor, causing the Advisor to act as if it were in charge of the Finance Ministry.
“The Transaction Advisor was free to enter into any procurement contract on behalf of the State without going through the procurement activity, the Procurement Law, and without going through the Compulsory Entities Bids Committee of the Ministry of Finance.
“The Transaction Advisor had become the Expense Officer instead of the Chief Director, so basically the Transaction Advisor acted as if he was in charge of the Ministry of Finance, so even if they submitted a request for payment, he had to be paid.
“How the heck is he going to sign a contract with a Transaction Advisor who sees the entire responsibility of the Ministry and sees the management operations of the Ministry that are supposed to be under the purview of the Chief Director?” I ask.
The Special Prosecutor, Mr. Amidu, in his assessment of the corruption risk of the controversial agreement, argued that there was a reasonable suspicion of bid rigging and corruption activity, including the potential for illicit financial flows and money laundering in the process that led to to the selection of the Transaction Advisor.
“The Transaction Advisor, whose selection and appointment by the Ministry of Finance did not measure up to the analysis of the risk of corruption and the anti-corruption evaluation that complies with the fundamentals of probity, transparency and accountability, was / was potentially susceptible to undue influence, favoritism, cronyism, nepotism and all forms of discrimination abhorred by the 1992 Constitution that lead to the suspicion of bundling the position of service provider and insurer with entities not chosen by merit ”. Said Mr. Amidu.
However, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says his team carried out due diligence regarding the processes that led to the approval of the Agyapa Royalty Agreement in Parliament.
