The two co-chairs of the ad hoc committee that investigated Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta vis-à-vis a censure motion filed against him, have disagreed publicly about the committee’s findings.
While Dr Dominic Ayine of the minority caucus said “unassailable evidence” of misconduct has been established against Mr Ofori-Atta, his co-chair of the majority caucus, Mr K. T Hammond, said in parliament on Thursday, 8 December 2022 during a debate on the committee’s report that there was nothing of that sort.
Dr Ayine argued that although the minister was exonerated on some of the seven allegations levelled against him, there was ample evidence of misconduct to get him removed from office.
Mr Hammond, on the other hand, said the committee “was not able to come out with any findings”.
Meanwhile, Speaker Alban Bagbin has been defending his decision to first have the committee probe the matter before the plenary vote on it.
After copious references to the 1992 Constitution and Orders of the House to make his point, Mr Bagbin said: “The information I have shared with you and the public leaves me in no doubt whatsoever that the procedure adopted by the referral of the matter to the ad hoc Committee for inquiry is well rooted in law”.
“I am convinced that the public hearing conducted by the Committee has vindicated my decision and allayed the fears of all those who had thought otherwise. Fortified by this conviction, I rule that the referral of the motion to pass a resolution on a vote of censure on the Minister of Finance to an ad hoc Committee for inquiry is proper and in accordance with the law”.
