Tensions flared at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting when the Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, clashed with PAC Chairperson and former Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, during discussions on poor telecom service delivery in the country.

A video of the heated exchange, sighted by GhanaWeb, started after Sam George defended government measures aimed at improving network services across the country while responding to concerns raised by committee members.

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According to the minister, the current administration has already directed telecom companies to expand infrastructure to improve network quality.

He stated that mobile network operators are making major investments following policy directives introduced by the government.

“Private businesses are about making profit and those profits they paid to you over eight years at the finance ministry as corporate taxes. Policy decision and policy leadership ought to make sure that we took steps to protect the customer and I'm saying that we, under this reset agenda and under a responsible government, have done so,” he said.

As he continued his submission, Osei-Asare attempted to interrupt and urged him to go straight to the point, leading to a tense confrontation between the two lawmakers.

Osei-Asare criticised the minister for politicising the issue when he attempted to blame the previous administration for the challenges in the telecom sector.

Here are the excerpts below:

Sam George: “Private businesses are about making profit and those profits they paid to you over eight years at the finance ministry as corporate taxes. Policy decision and policy leadership ought to make sure that we took steps to protect the customer and I'm saying that we under this reset agenda and under a responsible government have done so.

Osei-Asare: Minister, I beg you.

Sam George: Honorable, I'm also a Member of Parliament, don't do this. Please, I am on the floor, let me make my point. No, you won't heckle me. Don't play sentiment.

Osei-Asare: I’m not heckling you but we beg you, just go straight to the point. We are tired of this politics.

Sam George: Honorable, you need to rein in the honorable member. She's being unruly. You're being unruly. Please, this is unbecoming of a Member of Parliament. Please, stop doing this.

Osei-Asare: Listen, you don't have the floor (sic) so respect us.

Sam George: No, I have the floor. No, you have asked me a question. I have the floor. You will let me answer the question. No, you won't do that, Abena. You won't do that today. Let me finish.

Osei-Asare: Minister, respectfully, this is our committee and you don't tell us what you want to do.

Sam George: But you've not brought me here to talk down on me as well. I listen to you go on, you must listen to me as well.

Osei-Asare: Minister, nobody's doing that to you. No.

Osei-Asare: Please, when you come here and we address issues, it is not that we want to take anybody down. Never. You and I, we go beyond this. It is not that we want to take anybody down, but minister, the situation is serious and that is all the sentiments I'm trying to carry across.

Sam George: And that's the point I'm making. We've given a policy direction in January. On the back of our policy direction, MTN is rolling out 800 new sites. Telecel is rolling out 350 new sites. Between those two companies, you see 1,150 new sites. However, that's why I said to you that this is engineering and not sentiment. When you ask an MNO to roll out a new site, there are steps that have to be taken. First and foremost, you need to do the acquisition of the site. Then you need to then make the requisition for the radio equipment and the cell site. Those are not things that are, for want of a better phrase, in a supermarket that you just go and buy. You place an order with an OEM.

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The regulator, the NCA, is going through this process. Most of the MNOs are receiving their BTA devices between July and August. So yes, we have made the request. We have asked them to take the steps. They have taken the steps, but it takes time for the equipment to arrive in the country. When the equipment arrives and they roll out the improvement, you will see the improvement in the network.

But we cannot sit here. After 10 years of failing to take action, someone is taking action, and then you say that you want to see it as quickly as possible.



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