Lawyer and host of JoyNews' Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini, has argued that facilitation is merely another form of corruption, and any funds given to parliamentarians to perform their duties constitutes outright corruption.

He was responding to a statement by former Bekwai Member of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who claimed that facilitating MPs' work should not be regarded as corruption.

Mr Anyenini stated, “In this country, 'facilitation' is one of the terms we use for corruption. It doesn’t matter how small the amount is; the question is, are you entitled to it?”

He continued, “In that House (Parliament), we are getting many things wrong. I cannot agree with him that because the payment is small or it is requested, it cannot be wrong.”

Earlier, Mr Osei-Owusu had mentioned that, during his time in Parliament, the Chief of Staff would often pay MPs money for performing committee work.

Read also: ‘Chief of Staff gave us money after vetting, but it’s not bribery’ – Joseph Osei-Owusu

This, according to Mr Anyenini is wrong and must not be tolerated.

The issue of bribery among parliamentarians escalated when youth activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor alleged that members of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee were taking money from ministerial nominees before approving them.

Mr. Barker-Vormawor later appeared before Parliament, where he apologised for making the claims and retracted his comments.