The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, has refuted claims that the Committee is culpable in bribery incidents.

Over the years, allegations of bribery, corruption and favouritism have lingered in the background against the committee.

The issue gained renewed attention recently after investigative journalist Manasseh Awuni Azure made claims in his latest book ‘The President Ghana Never Got’.

According to him, some Parliamentarians have confirmed that officials scheduled to appear before the Committee, to answer for infractions highlighted in the Auditor General’s report, pay committee members to fast-track their cases and ensure lenient treatment.

Addressing the concerns in Parliament on Tuesday, August 20, the Committee’s Chairman James Klutse Avedzi said the allegations cannot be true.

“I’ve always tried to be fair, so I don’t take money from people to be lenient with them. If other members have been taking money so be it, but for me, I don’t do that.

“But those allegations will definitely be there because we are a public organization dealing with the public so people will come and say all sorts of things but it is not true,” he said.

Responding to which of the matters referred to the Attorney General has been prosecuted so far, Mr Avedzi revealed that parliament has failed to transmit any of the referrals since 2017 to the AG, until this year.

“The challenge we had as a committee was that when we did all these, Parliament was not communicating to the Attorney General for them to take action until one day the Attorney General appeared before the Committee and I asked him about it and he said nothing has been communicated to him.

“So I had to do a follow-up and the Clerk of Parliament to communicate these referrals to the Attorney General’s Office," he revealed.