The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has dismissed suggestions of strained relations between himself and the Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, following a tense exchange during a committee sitting on Monday.

According to the Minister, the heated interaction was merely part of their normal engagements and did not reflect any personal hostility between them.

Mr George appeared before the committee to respond to concerns relating to alleged poor service delivery by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country.

The proceedings, however, became tense after the Minister made comments linking some of the challenges in the telecommunications sector to what he described as weak policy direction, governance failures and leadership deficiencies under the previous Akufo-Addo administration.

His remarks drew an immediate response from Mrs Osei-Asare, who previously served as a Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance under the former administration.

The PAC Chairperson reportedly interrupted the Minister, while also urging him to confine his submission to issues directly before the committee.

The interruption prompted a sharp reaction from Mr George, who appealed to the Ranking Member of the committee, Samuel Atta Mills, who was presiding over the sitting at the time, to call the Chairperson to order.

Despite the tense exchanges during the hearing, the Minister later sought to downplay the incident while speaking to journalists after the session.

“Abena is a friend, maybe that is why our exchanges were heated. We do this in our regular conversations. But the fact that we are friends does not negate the fact that the work has to be done,” he stated in an interview with JoyNews Parliamentary Correspondent James Avedzi.

Mr George further suggested that some members of the committee were merely returning the intense scrutiny he subjected former ministers to during his own time as a member of the Public Accounts Committee while in the opposition.

“I know my colleagues are returning the favour for what I did for New Patriotic Party ministers when I was a member of PAC. But I’m a tough nut to crack. The next time I come, I will fire them. No hard feelings, no bad blood, I’m going to join them for lunch,” he added.

The Public Accounts Committee is one of Parliament’s key oversight bodies responsible for examining the audited accounts of state institutions and ensuring accountability in the use of public resources.

Sittings of the committee often attract public attention due to the probing nature of its proceedings and the high-profile personalities who appear before it.

Monday’s hearing formed part of ongoing parliamentary scrutiny of Ghana’s telecommunications sector amid increasing public concerns over network quality, data pricing and general service delivery by telecom operators.