Audio By Carbonatix
Chairman of Parliament's Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah says it will take more than a directive from President Akufo-Addo for Parliament to review the Agyapa Royalties deal.
According to him, Parliament can only reconsider the deal if the President "has the intention of resubmitting some additional information" for review and not base his instruction on the Corruption Risk Assessment put together by Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu.
While reiterating an earlier stance after the release of the report by Mr. Amidu, Dr. Assibey Yeboah told JoyNews' Evans Mensah that the work done by the Special Prosecutor is shoddy and must be ignored.
According to him, after reading the report, it became clear that Mr. Martin Amidu was on a fishing expedition.
"I still insist that Martin Amidu should not be taken seriously because he has done a sloppy job.
"And for me reading through what he has put out, I will not waste my time on Martin Amidu and his epistles or whatever he has put out," he said on PM Express, Tuesday.
His comment follows directives by President Akufo-Addo to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to return the Agyapa deal to Parliament for further scrutiny after the Presidency received a copy of the Corruption Risk Assessment report.
In the report, the Special Prosecutor had argued that there was a reasonable suspicion of bid-rigging and corruption activity including the potential for illicit financial flows and money laundering in the process that led to the selection of the Transaction Advisor(s).
This according to Mr. Amidu meant that the selection and appointment of advisors for the agreement did not meet the “fundamentals of probity, transparency, and accountability.”
Again, the Special Prosecutor stated that all the various officials who took part in the processes leading to the approval of the deal by Parliament flouted several laws with impunity.
All these allegations have since been denied by the Finance Minister who insists that the mechanisms surrounding the deal were transparent.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament says they feel vindicated by the report and are calling for the complete withdrawal of the deal.
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