Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is to appear on Friday (18 November) before Parliament’s ad hoc committee in Accra to respond to a motion of vote of censure.
The Minority had brought the motion, which was admitted by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin. He then set up an eight-member committee to investigate the motion.
Kobina Tahir Hammond, the MP for Adansi Asokwa in the Ashanti Region who is the co-chair of the ad hoc committee, said at the first sitting on Monday that the matter had elements of criminality, political and civil responsibility.
He said the committee had decided that there must be an evidential basis for the allegations the MPs would like debated.
“We accordingly decided that we give the proponents of the motion the opportunity to present to us [the committee] and of course, more importantly, the particular individual involved in this matter and the specifics of the matter …” Hammond said.
Hammond had earlier asked that Ofori-Atta appear on Thursday 17 November to respond to the issues but Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, counsel for the Finance Minister, told the committee that his client needs 48 hours to prepare adequately for the hearing.
The right to be heard
Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, a co-chair of the committee and MP for Bolgatanga East, said Article 82(4) of the 1992 constitution provided that during the debate for the vote of censure, the Finance Minister, who was the subject matter of the motion, had the right to be heard.
He said the proponents of the motion were not accusing the Finance Minister and that they moved it because, in their estimation, the minister was not performing his public duty as expected of him under the laws and donstitution of Ghana.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the counsel for Ofori-Atta, appealed to the committee in his submission to ensure that documents on specifics of the proponents are made available to his client, in the interests of fairness.
Misreporting
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, laid out the seven grounds for the Minority’s censure motion against Ofori-Atta.
Making his own presentation to the committee on the motion, Cassiel Ato Forson, the ranking member of the finance committee, accused the minister of deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament, among other things.
Ofori-Atta was accompanied to the hearing by his wife, Professor Angela Ofori-Atta, John Ampontuah Kumah, a deputy finance minister, and Abena Osei Asare, also a deputy finance minister.
The Minority members on the committee are Samuel Okudzoto Ablakwa (the MP for North Tongu), Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings (MP for Korle Klottey) and Bernard Ahiafor (Akatsi South).
The members from the Majority side, aside from the co-chair K T Hammond, are Patrick Yaw Boamah (Okaikwei Central), Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi (Asante Akim Central) and Andrew Egyapa Mercer (the MP for Sekondi).
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