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A New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) has revealed in his testimony before the inter-ministerial committee tasked to review the Ghana Telecom sale, that all the NPP MPs who voted for the sale were each paid $5,000.
According to the NPP MP, the money came from the Office of the President and was dished out to the MP's by former Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani.
The MP, who has petitioned the current administration to review the sale of Ghana Telecom, said the money was used to influence the NPP MPs to vote for the deal.
Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, the MP for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa Constituency in the Central Region, told the Committee reviewing the sale of Ghana Telecom that he was so disappointed about the blatant 'bribery' by the then Presidency that he wrote to the Office of the President complaining about it.
Speaking in an interview with The Enquirer, the anti-corruption crusader said even though the office of the then president refused to respond to his letter, Kwadwo Mpiani accosted him, saying that if the letter had fallen into the hands of the opponents it could have spelt disaster for the party.
"They didn't respond, Kwadwo Mpiani rather reprimanded me, saying that don't I know that if the letter had gotten into the wrong hands, it would negatively affect the image of the government?"
According to Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, the money was paid to only the NPP MPs and that because he was the only person who was not paid part of the money because he voted against the sale.
Asked why he did not bring up the matter earlier than now, the MP said that he did not because he did not want the NPP to lose the elections.
According to the MP, if President Mills' government does not revoke the sale of Ghana Telecom, he will take the matter to the Supreme Court.
He added that he was surprised that Parliament itself even violated its own rules and went out of its way to commit such grave illegalities.
He said according to Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution, any motion that is moved on the floor of Parliament, which will result in a charge on the consolidated fund must be tabled on behalf of the President.
"The letter dated July 7, 2008, from the President asked Parliament to approve the sale to Vodafone PLC UK. But the motion which was moved on the floor of the House was at the instance of the ministers of Communication and Finance. They wrote to Parliament for the sale to Vodafone Holding in the Netherlands. This makes the whole transaction null and void," the MP said.
On why he has petitioned the President, Hon. Appiah-Ofori said it was basically because the NPP government failed to do a proper cost-benefit analysis and that the sale of Ghana Telecom is not in the interest of the nation.
According to the MP, the sale agreement between Ghana Government and Vodafone required the government to absolve several debts and liabilities.
Hon. Appiah-Ofori noted that after Government of Ghana absolved the debt and liabilities of Ghana Telecom, the net value of the sale will be only $162 million.
Besides the above, the MP noted that there were certain strategic assets of Ghana Telecom which cannot be sold because they are state monopolies.
According to him, it is very dangerous to hand over state monopolies to private foreign entities.
"Take the Armed Forces, Office of the President, Ministries for example. If government of Ghana is unable to pay its telephone bill to Vodafone, they can decide to disconnect the government. Can you imagine what will happen if these institutions are disconnected?" he queried.
| Source: The Enquire |
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