The Minority Leader has described as "whimsical and capricious" a decision by the Speaker to throw out a motion submitted by the Minority which sought a Parliamentary probe into the controversial Ford gift scandal involving Ghana's president.

Even more disappointing, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu averred was the decision by the Speaker to relegate the powers of an arm of government (Parliament) under an administrative body which is CHRAJ.

At a press conference organised immediately after the Speaker of Parliament quashed the motion, the Minority Leader said through the Speaker's jaundiced interpretation of the Constitutional provisions, Parliament has lost a golden opportunity to invoke its powers of oversight over the executive.

Parliamentary Probe

The Minority wanted a bipartisan Parliamentary probe into the circumstances under which president John Mahama accepted a Ford gift estimated at $100,000 from a Burkinabe contractor in 2012.

Per an investigative piece done by Joy FM's Manasseh Azure Awuni the contractor Jibril Kanazoe after his car donation received three contracts to construct two roads and a wall around Ghana's mission in Burkina Faso.

The president has admitted collecting the gift which he ordered to be put into  the state's pool for use at the presidency but vehemently denied that the gift played any role in the award of the contracts to Kanazoe.

There have been mixed reaction ever since the matter came to the public domain. Some have vehemently chastised the president for breaching his own code of ethics which stops public officers from receiving gift worth more than 200 cedis. Others have defended the president claiming the Ford was never taken for his personal use but was placed in a pool of state vehicles.

The matter is currently under investigation at the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice following three separate petitions from individuals and political parties.

The New Patriotic Party sought to elevate the investigation in the realm of Parliament through a motion signed by a number of minority members.

The motion led to a recall of Parliament as MPs, ministers of state all cut short their busy campaign schedules for a showdown.

The motion, wanted Parliament to find out, if the president by his acceptance of the Ford gift, breached any part of the law and whether it infringed the president's own code of conduct.

Speaker's Ruling

In not more than 15 minutes the Speaker of Parliament gave his ruling and single handedly threw out the motion.

According to the Speaker, on receipt of the motion he sought to find out whether the matter was under investigation at the Commission of Human Rights Administrative Justice.

He therefore directed his clerk on August 19, 2016 to conduct a search which proved that CHRAJ was indeed investigating the matter.

"The search indicated that there are three petitions currently before the Commission..." he stated, adding, the matter currently before CHRAJ is no different in shape or form from the motion brought by the Minority.

He quoted Articles 286 and 287 and of the Constitution which gives CHRAJ the power to investigate matters of corruption and breach of the code of conduct.

He also made reference to the judgment of the Supreme Court case in which Samuel Okudzeto and Dr Omane Boamah sued the late Jake Obetsebi Lamptey for abusing his office in his purchase of a state bungalow. .

Speaker Doe Adjaho in dismissing the motion, said the Commission had exclusive right to investigate matters relating conflict of interest and other related matters as pronounced by the Supreme Court.

Based on Standing Order 79, the Speaker through his powers discretion directed "the clerk to return the motion to the member in whose name it stands."

"Since this is the matter that has brought us here I adjourn the house sine die"

Minority Reaction

The Minority in Parliament says thanks to the decision by the Speaker of Parliament, the president has lost a golden opportunity to clear himself of the corruption and bribery allegations currently being hurled against him.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said there was no institution better than Parliament to have investigated this issue.

He argued that if the Speaker's ruling is anything to go by, then the recent judicial scandal which saw judges  taking bribes should have gone to CHRAJ for investigation and not to the Courts.

According to him, individual Minority members have written to officials of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, to the Ghana Revenue Authority and to the Administrator General to find out when the vehicle was registered and in whose name, whether duties were paid on the vehicle and if indeed the vehicle was placed in the state pool.

He said none of the officials have bothered to reply to the letters written to them. He said if Parliament had seized this opportunity to investigate the matter all these information would have provided and if the president were to be clean, as he claimed he is, then the country would have moved on.

He said the Speaker arbitrarily exercised his powers of discretion in dismissing the case.

Quoting Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution, he said the Speaker ought to have exercised that power in a fair, candid manner and should not be capricious.

He was convinced the Speaker was whimsical and capricious in the manner in which he threw out the motion saying the Minority will confer and take a decision that will be in the interest of the country.