Tension mounts in Ghana’s Parliament

Tension is mounting in Ghana’s Parliament over the Speaker of the House Rt. Honorable Doe Adjaho’s call for investigations into the conduct of the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) - Honorable Agyeman Manu, concerning a sponsorship request he is alleged to have made to Ghana’s ICT Giant RLG.

In a rather unprecedented move, Hon. Adjaho last week directed the leadership of Parliament to investigate the NPP MP for Dormaa West who is currently out of the country, citing a possible ‘conflict of interest’ situation in the alleged sponsorship request to Rlg.

Questions are being asked about the new twist of events in Parliament considering that there have been previous instances where some Parliamentary Committees sought for support from private sector operators that did not raise any eyebrows.

Again when the allegations of financial impropriety in relation to the guinea fowl and the afforestation projects were first raised against the Asongtaba Cottage Industry- a member of the AGAMS Group, after the presentation of the 2013 budget, no order was made to investigate the allegations, and there was no sense of urgency to deal with the matter by Parliament giving the impression that the matter was no big deal.

Indeed, the 2011 Auditor General 's report is yet to be laid in Parliament after almost one year after it was delivered to the House by the A-G’s Department. ( The report was delivered to parliament in September 2012).

The sponsorship letter that is in contention now was first made public by the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Malik Kweku Baako, on a radio discussion programme when he was defending Rlg’s recent offer to drill boreholes for all Members of Parliament in their respective constituencies.

Mr. Baako argued that there was nothing wrong with Rlg’s offer to drill 275 boreholes for the MPs and that Parliament itself had made requests for sponsorship from Rlg in the past including the letter allegedly written by Hon. Agyeman Manu, which he waved in the studio.

It will appear that it was based on this discussion and perhaps on some Newspaper publications of Mr. Baako’s revelation that the Speaker of Parliament raised the issue on the floor of the House and directed leadership to investigate the matter.

Interestingly, Hon. Adjaho seems to have shot down his own directive when a week after the call for investigations, he again called for the development of a code of conduct to regulate the activities of Committees of Parliament. There is currently no code in the House to regulate the conduct of Members of Parliament or the Committees, and there is no policy on sponsorship deals between public institutions and the private sector.

This vacuum has left the field free not only for Parliament, but for all other state institutions to exercise their discretion on matters of requests for sponsorship from the private sector with its attendant potential to compromise these public officials.

The recent offer by Rlg to drill boreholes for Members of Parliament offers the country an opportunity to deal with a very important matter that has been on the blind side of Ghana Government for a very longtime.

The offer by Rlg has raised many more questions about propriety and morality in the context of the country’s quest for probity and accountability. The offer must be looked at with all seriousness and the objectivity it deserves.

There is currently before Parliament a matter of accountability involving the AGAMS Group of Companies which is the parent company of Rlg. When the 2013 budget was presented to Parliament in March, MPs raised questions of financial impropriety in connection with certain government projects that the AGAMS Group is involved in.

Whiles there is no proof that the AGAMS Group has done anything wrong and whiles no case of collusion has been brought against any Member of Parliament in this matter, it does make sense that if the Speaker says there may be a case of conflict of interest in the PAC request for sponsorship from Rlg, then surely he should find something wrong with Rlg or any other company that offers to drill boreholes for Members of Parliament who constitute the committees in the House.

Many private sector operators are in the habit of making donations to public institutions under the guise of good corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility which is good, but these donations no doubt have the potential of influencing these institutions or the individuals in the course of their duties.

There have been many media reports of private companies donating equipment, generator sets or even buildings to the Police Service. These donations are usually gladly received and even publicized. Donations are made towards major events such as ‘Farmer’s Day,’ Teachers’ Day, Senior Citizens’ Day and even some times for the nation’s own independence anniversary celebrations.

During the funeral rites of the late President Mills, Roland Agambire made a cash donation of GHc500,000. 00 (Five billion old cedis) even though this was a State funeral! He also donated cash and equipment towards the 2012 general elections as well as another GHc2 million cash donation for the ECOWAS games held in Accra last year.

Roland Agambire or his company is not the only one who makes donations to public institutions, many other private sector operators do the same, and our public institutions and officials receive these donations gladly.

The question really is, are these donations proper? Should they be accepted by state institutions? Is anybody monitoring their effect? Is it for nothing that as a policy, certain countries do not accept AID or any form of assistance from other people not even during times of disaster?

No one can pretend that the hand that feeds him/her has no influence on him/her. How can it be that the Government that has made these individuals and private companies rich is so broke it will have to take donations from these same individuals? It is time for Ghana to consider a National Policy on Sponsorship Requests to guide and regulate the exercise to avoid abuse.