The Minister of State-designate for the Ministry of the Interior, Nana Obiri-Boahen, has dared his critic to boldly come out and prove their claims that he is hot-headed.

Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday, he said until that statement is proven it does not hold.

“I am not hot-headed at all. I am somebody who is honest, hardworking and very principled…he that alleges must prove it and that has been the legal maxim. So if you refer to me as hot-headed then the onus to prove it is on that fellow,” Obiri-Boahen stated.

He confirmed that he is the legal adviser to all the nine district assemblies of the Brong Ahafo region but said “it was purely gratis.”

Other ministers-designate who were vetted were Foreign Affairs, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Information and National Orientation, Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Manpower, Youth and Employment, Nana Akomea.

Nana Akomea said that it was in the interest of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to create more jobs for as many youth as possible under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

He said it was, therefore, surprising that there were reports that the programme was only engaging NPP supporters.

He said when given the nod as the Minister of the Employment Ministry, he would set up a committee to investigate complaints that the NYEP was an avenue to create jobs for party supporters.

The Minister-designate told the committee that although he was aware of a mandatory 12.5 per cent contributions by employers to the social security scheme on behalf of employees.

He said the NYEP was in transition and had some teething problems such as funding but a study needed to be carried out to find out whether the programme was capable of paying social security contributions on behalf of those employed.

When Mr. Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Minister-Designate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NEPAD and Regional Integration, took his turn, he told the committee that it was cost effective to buy houses for Ghana's missions abroad instead of renting out places to house them.

He said Ghana had had a mission in Egypt right from the 1950's and it made more sense to have a policy to buy a house rather than rent a place for such missions.

In response to a question on changing the name of the Foreign Ministry to that of Ministry of International Relations, he said the change of name did not matter, so long as the objectives and activities of Ghana's foreign policy were being carried out.

Mr Osei-Adjei told the committee that he was aware that some monies were collected by Ghana's missions for the Ghana@50 celebrations, but added that the money did not come to the Foreign Ministry.

He promised to furnish Parliament with details of where the monies went.

Additional files from GNA