|
Former Speaker of Parliament to pay
over GH¢30,000.00
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, March 30, Ghanadot - The parliamentary inventory board is
to conduct investigations into circumstances under which former
Speaker Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes allegedly made away with
furnishings at his official residence.
Mr.. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, is the immediate past
Speaker of Ghana’s parliament and key member of the opposition
New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Reports indicate that the official residence has been stripped
of a set of furniture worth GH¢30,000.00 said to have been paid
for by the state.
Household items, electrical appliances, carpets, generator,
flower pots and pillow cases are all said to be missing.
No clear reasons have been given by the former speaker to
justify the absence of the missing items.
This has prevented the sitting speaker, Mrs Joyce Bamford Addo
from moving in three months after being sworn in as speaker.
A service wing of Parliament ordered an inventory of items left
at the residence and is expected to take a decision soon.
Former Speaker, Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, has told the Minority
Leader, Hon Kyei Mensah-Bonsu that he is ready and willing to
pay for all items he took away from his official residence if
that decision is taken.
Hon Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu tells Citi Radio, a private radio
station in Accra that Mr Hughes expressed his willingness to pay
for the items when he spoke with him to enquire why he had
stripped his official residence bare.
Meanwhile the Parliamentary Service Board is expected to meet on
the matter.
The Board would discuss how to retrieve the furnishings and
equipment, which, according to Majority Leader Alban Bagbin,
amounts to over four billion old cedis.
Rt Hon Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, according to Majority
Leader Alban Bagbin, stripped bare his official residence
leaving only wall unit air conditions and a doormat.
Both Majority and Minority Leaders of Parliament have confirmed
that Rt Hon Sekyi House indeed took away virtually everything
from his official residence upon leaving office.
The two leaders of the House have also hinted in separate
interviews that all the gym equipment and standby generator may
be retrieved from the former Speaker.
He may however have to pay for the other furnishings.
Hon Mensah-Bonsu said it was wrong for the former Speaker to
have taken the items away when no inventory had been taken
pending a definitive decision by the Board.
The Majority Leader of Parliament,
Alban Sumani Bagbin, said it would be improper to retrieve state
property taken away by the former Speaker of the House from his
official residence.
He said Mr. Begyina Sekyi-Hughes at best could be made to pay
for the items.
Mr. Bagbin indicated that retrieving the items was not the best
thing to do under the circumstances because some of them might
not be in good shape as of now.
“Packing and repacking them could result in breakages,” he
explained.
The Majority Leader rejected suggestions that the Parliamentary
Service Board allowed Mr. Sekyi-Hughes to take away the items.
He explained the Board had adopted the same policy that was
applicable to general public service, which policy would not
permit the former speaker to empty his official residence.
Mr.. Bagbin called for clarification of the rules and regulation
guiding exiting of office of speakers and other personnel of the
House to prevent a recurrence.
Reacting to the issues, the Minority Leader, Mr. Osei Kyei
Mensah-Bonsu said he had cited minutes of a meeting by the
Parliamentary Service Board at which the issue of what Mr. Sekyi-Hughes
could take away on leaving office was discussed.
He conceded that it was, however, not firmly concluded that he
could take away the items.
The Parliamentary Service Board comprises the Speaker, the
Clerks of Parliament and the Majority and Minority Leaders of
the House.
Ghanadot
|
