Items worth 3.3 million cedis missing from Speaker's residence

Accra, March 25, GNA- The Parliamentary Service Board would meet next week to discuss items worth more than 3.3 million Ghana cedis allegedly missing from the official new residence of the former Speaker of Parliament.

The loss was detected after Mr. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes(pictured) had vacated the newly built residence for Speakers of Parliament.

The former Speakers, the late Mr. Justice Annan and Peter Ala Adjetey lived in private residences.

Mr. Alban Bagbin, Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu confirmed this in separate interview with the Ghana News Agency in Parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Bagbin said on March 10, this year, he led a team from Parliament to take inventory at the Speaker's residence and that, Mr. Sakyi Hughes, the number three gentleman of the State had vacated his residence he (Bagbin), was shocked to have found the rooms virtually empty; "not even a pin could be found there."

The Majority Leader presented to the Ghana News Agency a list of a host of items that were missing in the rooms some of which included refrigerators, ovens, washing machines and cooking utensils and electronic gadgets.

Some of them are gymnastic items, beds, fire extinguishers and conference room and other furniture.

Mr Bagbin said even if the Chenery-Hesse Committee Report became implementable the former Speaker was to be entitled to two cars but two of VW Passat cars had been retrieved and a new Toyota Landcrusher and a Tuareq VW car, which cost 1.8 billion Ghana cedis could still not been traced.

According to Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the incident might have happened because somewhere along the line there was a communication gap. He explained that sometime ago a meeting was held to decide whether,

when the Speaker was leaving office some of the items could be sold to him at a depreciated value because there was a likelihood that the new Speaker might not like to use some of the used items.