The Ad-hoc committee which was established and mandated to probe allegations in a censure motion filed against the Finance Minister, Ken ofori-Atta, has exonerated the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta of any wrongdoing.
According to a Co-chair of the Committee, K.T Hammond, the committee did not adduce any evidence that suggest that Mr Ofori-Atta is guilty of the claims leveled against him.
He made this known on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, December 8, 2022, when the House sat to debate on the report presented by the Committee.
“The committee was not able to come out with any findings,” he said.
This claim however contradicted that of his co-chair, Dominic Ayine’s.
Making his case on the floor of Parliament, Dr. Dominic Ayine, who was also a co-chair of the ad-hoc committee insisted that they had “unassailable evidence” but were compelled to build consensus on the motion.
“In terms of substantive content, we could not make definite findings of facts and recommendations on the censure motion. I had thought that the mandate of the committee was a fact finding committee and therefore we could make findings of fact [but] that was vehemently opposed by the Majority, and because of that you’ll notice that in terms of its substantive content, the report does not have real findings of fact definite findings of fact as well as recommendations,” Dr Ayine contended.
This follows a censure motion that was filed by the Minority in Parliament On October 25, 2022, against Ken Ofori-Atta.
Some Members of the Majority caucus, numbering about 80, also made a case against the Minister, calling for his dismissal from office due to the economic hardships.
The committee presented the report to the House and the debate on the report commenced yesterday, December 8, 2022.
Making his case in Parliament on Thursday, Dr Ayine maintained that the committee obtained “unassailable evidence” of misconduct on the part of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He explained that on ground one – which is the funding of the National Cathedral – it was very clear that the minister exceeded what was appropriated.
“In other words he engaged in expenditure in excess of appropriation. That’s because according to the Minister (in the report) he took money from other government obligations and it was a contingency vote. Now if you look at the other obligations and the vote that this house passed on government obligations for that fiscal year, it was very clear that the Minister by his own evidence that he submitted to us exceeded appropriation,” he said.
He also mentioned that the Minister spent GHC 339 million on the Cathedral and that was far in excess of the envelope of resources that we appropriated for other government obligations.
Also speaking on the report of misreporting of data to Parliament, he said the committee found out that “the Minister misreported matters to Parliament.”
Source: The Independent Ghana| Jessie Ola-Morris