Ground three of the seven-point vote of censure hearing against embattled Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta was up for hearing on Day Two (November 17) of Parliament’s ad hoc committee sitting.
The ground read: “Illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts, in flagrant violation of Article 176 of the 1992 Constitution.”
To assist the committee, witnesses were called from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC, to explain matters, especially with the deposition of oil funds into specific accounts.
It emerged that the Finance Minister was not in any way connected to the receipt or transfer of any funds from GNPC’s Jubilee Oil Holdings Limited, JOHL, into any account.
Co-chair of the committee put a pointed question to the GNPC witness about the role of Ken Ofori-Atta in purported illegal payments.
“I need to understand this, in all of this, what relates to the Finance Minister in terms of the allegations made against him?” KT Hammond asked.
The GNPC witness responded: “As far as JOHL is concerned, the Finance Minister is not responsible for the revenues… obviously, we have to at the end of the day, submit our financials and GRA, and have to pay whatever assessed tax that we have to pay.”
“I don’t think the Finance Minister has any direct control,” Deputy Chief Executive (CEO) of the GNPC in charge of Commerce, Strategy and Business Development, Joseph Dadzie stressed.
Asked whether any monies from oil liftings were paid into an offshore account by the co-chair of the committee, Dominic Ayine, he added: “To the extent that the question relates to the receipt of crude, yeah, it was paid into an account held at the Ghana International Bank in London.”
He explained further that, “buyers of the crude paid directly into whichever account which you designate for them to pay.”