The man at the centre of a censure hearing by a Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee, Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has asked his accuser, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament, to furnish him documents they would rely on to execute the motion.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the minister’s lawyer, made the request when the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee hearing the motion started its sitting.
Mr Otchere-Darko said the rules of natural justice and fair hearing required that the accused was not only heard but was furnished with the documents that formed the bases of the allegations made against him.
He, therefore, insisted that the Minority, led by its Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, provides the documents to him and his client.
This, he said, will enable his client better assess the allegations based on which his removal is being pushed for.
“It would not be fair for the Minister of Finance to be ambushed right here without any preparation to start answering questions.”
“All we are asking for in the interest of justice is that we should be furnished with the full particulars of the facts in support of each of the allegations contained in the letter and then the supporting documents,” Mr. Okyere Darko said.
Mr Otchere-Darko, argued that any development beyond this point may amount to ambushing the embattled Minister with questions that may be outside the scope of the probe.
The request was met with hesitance from the Minority, who appeared unprepared and insisted that they documents were already in the public domain and did not have to be tendered.
After back and forth on the matter, the co-Chairmen, K.T. Hammond and Dr Dominic Ayine, ruled that the Minority presented the documents to the minister and the committee.
The documents were subsequently listed.
The Finance Minister had written prior to the hearing requesting full particulars of the allegations against him in the Minority’s motion.
While the committee’s clerk said he had not received the formal record of the evidence from the Minority, Cassiel Ato Forson said he had sent the notice of evidence via hyperlinks because the clerk’s notice to him had come in a letter sent via WhatsApp.
The Sekondi MP, Andrew Agyapa Mercer, for example, argued that the committee was a quasi-judicial proceeding and required conditions for a fair hearing for the Finance Minister.
“The purpose for which disclosures and exchange of documents are made is clearly known to all of us. It prevents the element of surprise,” Mr. Mercer said.
In a retort to this argument, later on, a member of the Minority and one of the chairs of the committee, Dr. Dominic Ayine, argued that the committee was an administrative body and not a judicial-adjacent one.
“We are a political body mandated with the task of investigating… that is the essential task we are here to investigate this morning,” he said.
For its evidence, Mr. Forson said the Minority would be relying on IMF staff reports from 2018 to 2021, fiscal data from the Ministry of Finance, Budget statements from 2019 to 2022, mid-year budget statements from 2019 to 2022, the Auditor General reports from 2018 to 2020, PIAC reports from 2019 to 2022, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Public Financial Management Act, the Petroleum Management Act, the constitution and standing orders of Parliament.
He also said the Minority will make reference to an analysis by external experts.
Speaker of Parliament has deferred the motion of a vote of censure against Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance to an Ad-hoc Committee for investigations.
The Committee is expected to be co-chaired by Mr Dominic Ayine, a National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament (MP), for Bolgatanga East, and Mr KT Hammond, a New Patriotic Party member and MP for Adansi-Asokwa.
The eight-member committee, which has four members from each side of the House, has seven days to present their report to the House for debate.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP, North Tongu; Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, MP, Klottey-Korle; Mr Bernard Ahiafor, MP, Akatsi South; Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, MP, Okaikoi Central; Mr Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, MP, Asante Akim Central and Mr Egyapa Mercer, MP, Sekondi are members of the committee.
Minority’s grounds for Censure call
Conflict of interest ensuring that Mr Ofori-Atta directly benefited from Ghana’s economic woes as his company received commissions and other unethical contractual advantages, particularly from Ghana’s debt overhang is among the basis upon which the Minority cited its vote of censure.
They also cited unconstitutional withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund in blatant contravention of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution, supposedly for the construction of the President’s Cathedral.
According to the Caucus, illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts, in flagrant violation of Article 176 of the 1992 Constitution was another ground for the censure.
They also allege deliberate and dishonest misreporting of economic data to Parliament.
The Minority argue that fiscal recklessness led to the crash of the Ghana Cedi.
The grounds for the censure also said alarming incompetence and frightening ineptitude resulted in the collapse of the Ghanaian economy and an excruciating cost of living crisis.
