The Alliance of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in Extractive, Anti-Corruption and Good Governance has kicked against the reassessment of the Agyapa deal by the current Parliament following the detection of some anomalies by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu.
The CSOs said the current Parliament might fail to properly scrutinize the agreement should it attempt to revisit it for the reexamination. A member of the civil society group and the Country Director for Send Ghana, George Osei Bimpeh, said the deal should only be analyzed by the eighth Parliament. He added that with many of the parliamentarians canvassing votes for the 2020 elections, they will not be able to relook the deal properly.
“We are not in good terms in terms of the time on hand in Parliament. Many of them are in the nook and crannies of this country canvassing for votes. We do not have the massive attendance in the House and so I am a bit skeptical in terms of the kind of work that will go into it and I think that if anything at all, it shouldn’t be considered the lifetime of this Parliament.”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is expected to, in the coming days, send the controversial Agyapa Royalties agreement back to Parliament for further scrutiny. This follows an assessment report of the deal submitted to President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu.
President Akufo-Addo, upon receipt of the report, gave a directive to the Finance Minister to return the deal to Parliament to ensure transparency and probity. “The President has accordingly, instructed the Minister that, in the interest of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the Agreements supporting the transaction that were submitted to Parliament, and approved by the House, should be resubmitted to Parliament for the approval process to start all over again.
“This, he believes, will help address the concerns raised, principally, by the Minority, about having been given very limited time to subject properly the various Agreements to proper scrutiny. The transaction documents to be resubmitted are the Relationship Agreement, the Assignment Agreement, the Allocation Agreement, and the Investment Agreement”, a statement from the Jubilee House indicated.
Meanwhile, Ofori-Atta insisted that the Ministry has been transparent with the processes that led to the approval of the controversial Agyapa Royalties Agreement in Parliament. He stated in a memo in response to the corruption risk assessment report sent to President Akufo-Addo that the Attorney General and Parliament gave their blessing to the agreement because of the right processes the deal went through.
“Prior to initiating the Transaction, MoF ensured to undertake all the necessary prerequisite action required by law, from the procurement of transaction advisors, to the submission of transaction documents to the AG and Parliament for their review, input and approval.
“This Ministry believes that it has been transparent from the onset. Once Government had independently assessed the potential value of the Transaction to Ghana, and Cabinet had approved the policy to monetize future gold royalties to support current developmental projects, MoF included in the 2018 Budget and Economic Policy Statement, Government’s intention to leverage the future wealth of Ghana’s gold resources to support current developmental needs,” Ofori-Atta said in the memo.
Source: citifmonline
