[ad_1]
General news for Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Source: 3 News
2020-11-03
Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu
The minority in Parliament has said they will not support the amendment of the Agyapa agreement if the Finance Minister returns to Parliament with him.
According to the caucus, the deal is bad for Ghana, so it should be scrapped entirely.
The minority’s decision comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo asked Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to return the Agyapa royalty deal to Parliament.
The Special Prosecutor, Martín Amidu, after investigations into the agreement on alleged corruption issues that were raised by civil society groups and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) concluded that the agreement was “opaque,” among other descriptions.
Amidu had asked the Finance Ministry to stop a scheduled Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the deal until after its investigations.
He said on Monday, November 2, that he had completed his evaluation of the transaction and, accordingly, had submitted his report to the president.
“The corruption risk analysis and anti-corruption assessment was completed and signed by the Special Prosecutor on October 15, 2020.
“The Special Prosecutor in a letter with the reference number OSP / SCR / 12/20/20 dated October 16, 2020 transmitted the conclusions and observations of the anti-corruption evaluation to HE the President and to H.E. Minister of Finance as a matter of courtesy before informing the public. “
“Two weeks is more than too long for this Office to continue withholding the announcement of the completion of its sixty-four (64) page report to the public. It is important that this Office be free to fulfill its anti-corruption mandate and keep the public informed.
“Therefore, I have decided to bring the facts of the conclusion of the anti-corruption assessment of the Agyapa Royalty Transactions by this Office to the public’s attention and to avoid continued speculation on this matter,” he said.
But minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, speaking to the media in Accra on Tuesday, November 3, said: “Only ten of the mining companies make significant contributions to our total revenue. Parliament cannot remedy the shortcomings identified by the Special Prosecutor. “
“How is Parliament going to cure nepotism and cronyism? How is the Parliament that you painted a CEO going to cure without due process? How is Parliament going to remedy that passed a resolution on a law that does not exist?
“You don’t build a house on nothing, it was built on nothing. How is Parliament going to resolve that a motion is presented and that the motion is amended at the same time it was going to be passed to make room for a president to accentuate a bill thus approved by Parliament? I ask.
“We feel strongly vindicated. The truth must always be on the side of the political minority at all times. Ghanaians will now understand why I momentarily lost my cool and temper. For an important national issue of this character and nature, you find that a minister of state trivializes it with ‘daddy no’ at the time, without worrying about the weight and scale of this particular transaction.
“You want to take the income from gold for the next 10 to 15 years, what does that mean for the state? What does it mean to bosses and people who earn a share of the Mineral Development Fund? The government ministers were joking and reduced that transaction to a travel drop.
“But we don’t support it today, we don’t support it tomorrow. We do not support it in the future. Parliament cannot correct any of the defined defects. “
Send your news to
and features for
. Chat with us through WhatsApp at +233 55 2699 625.
