The Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, has questioned why Ghana’s domestic security and anti-corruption institutions often fail to uncover alleged corruption schemes that are subsequently exposed by foreign law enforcement agencies.

He said the conviction of former Goldman Sachs banker Asante Kwaku Berko in the United States should prompt Ghana to examine not only the alleged bribery of Ghanaian officials but also weaknesses within institutions responsible for detecting and investigating corruption.

Speaking on Joy FM’s News Night on Thursday, August 13, 2026, the NPP MP said the Berko case was not an isolated incident and argued that Ghana could not afford to allow such cases to go without a comprehensive investigation.

“We are dealing with a gentleman that has been convicted in the United States of America for paying bribes to persons in authority. This is not the first time this is happening in the Republic of Ghana. It has happened over and over again,” he said.

His comments come after a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Mr Berko on August 6, 2026, over his role in a scheme involving the payment of more than US$1 million in bribes to Ghanaian officials in connection with the development and financing of a power plant.

Mr Berko, a dual Ghanaian-American citizen and former executive director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, had been involved in securing and managing an agreement between the Ghanaian government and Turkish energy company Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S.

According to the US prosecution, the scheme involved discussions about payments to Ghanaian officials to facilitate approvals for the project. The US Department of Justice also said Ghanaian officials received payments during a trip to Turkey to inspect equipment for the proposed power plant.

The conviction has since triggered calls for investigations in Ghana to establish whether officials allegedly involved in the scheme received bribes and whether any wrongdoing occurred on the Ghanaian side.

For Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, however, the matter goes beyond identifying individuals who may have benefited from the alleged scheme.

“The fundamental question that we have to answer, all of us, is, why is it that domestic security agencies keep missing this point, but international agencies are the ones that are getting this exposed?” he asked.

He said Ghana needed to use the case to assess the effectiveness of its institutions and determine why allegations of corruption involving public officials were sometimes detected outside the country rather than by domestic agencies.

“Are we saying that we should leave it and let it go without dealing with it so that Ghana will be continuously embarrassed on the international plane?” he asked.

Call for public inquiry

The MP advocated a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the power project and the alleged bribery scheme, saying such an exercise should not be viewed as an initiative designed to benefit the political opposition.

He also questioned whether the Minority had information on the identity of an alleged relative of then-President John Mahama who has been referenced in discussions surrounding the case.

“My question to you is, does the minority have any idea who the cited relative of then President John Mahama could be? We are asking for the inquiry. It is not something which should be to the benefit of merely the minority but the whole of Ghana,” he said.

Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah said a public inquiry would provide an opportunity to examine the conduct of state institutions and identify systemic weaknesses that could allow corruption to go undetected.

“How do we get it done? It is through a public inquiry,” he said.

He added: “Because you see, it is not merely to have people punished. It is also to look at our institutions, institutions of state, and how they do not, how they are not able to, you know, deal with or discover these matters.”

The MP said the Berko case should therefore be treated as an opportunity to strengthen Ghana’s institutional mechanisms for detecting corruption rather than simply focusing on possible criminal liability.

“But they are only discovered by international bodies,” he said, stressing the need for Ghana to examine why foreign investigations were able to uncover the alleged scheme.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has disclosed that it provided investigative and evidentiary assistance to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Berko case through Ghana’s mutual legal assistance framework.

The OSP said the US Department of Justice acknowledged its assistance as having made a “significant” contribution to the prosecution.

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has also indicated that Ghanaian authorities will work with US counterparts to investigate the Ghanaian side of the case.

Mr Berko is scheduled to be sentenced by the US court on November 10, 2026.