Amidu doesn’t understand Agyapa deal, I don’t blame him – Assibey-Yeboah fires back
Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah is Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament
The Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has said a corruption risk assessment report by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, on the Agyapa Royalties agreement is sloppy and misleading.
Read full articleDr Assibey-Yeboah said he is particularly concerned about the part of the report that suggests that the Finance Committee approved documents on the deal that is now being criticised for failing the test of transparency.
Dr Assibey-Yeboah said on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, during a discussion on a current affairs programme on Joy News that Mr Amidu's comment on the work of the Committee is not accurate because no committee of Parliament has powers to approve any document or agreement.
“Documents, agreements are referred to the committee and when the Committee finishes appraisal, it submits a report to the plenary,” he said.
The corruption risk assessment into the agreement by Martin Amidu found numerous breaches of law and due procedure, including the process adopted in the selection of Transaction Advisors for the deal.
Mr Amidu’s corruption risk assessment, for instance, makes claims of a possible deliberate attempt to use Data Bank, a company co-founded by Mr Ofori-Atta, as a decoy for the Transaction Advisors, Imara.
Reacting to the report, Dr Assibey-Yeboah said to pronounce a credible judgement on the deal, Mr Amidu should have at least spoken to him, the Chair of the Committee that appraised the documents that were forwarded to Parliament.
“In the minimum, he should have even spoken to the Chairman of the Committee to get a feel of how we went about all of these. Martin Amidu who professes that he does a good job and he puts out this sloppy report did not speak to me, the Chairman of the Committee…Martin Amidu doesn’t understand the transaction and I don’t blame him,” he said.
Dr Assibey-Yeboah said Mr Amidu has done a big disservice to Ghanaians with the contents of his corruption risk assessment report.
