An intriguing revelation by the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako that he has in his custody documents to show that members of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has written to mobile phone assembling firm, RLG demanding money to travel abroad has started raising eyebrows.
Mr. Baako’s revelation badly exposed parliamentarians on the Committee, as being caught in a conflict of interest situation where they could be compromised in the performance of their duties as protectors of the public purse.
Kweku Baako in haste to parry bribery claims against RLG over its decision to construct 275 bore-holes for Members of Parliament (MPs), blew cover on the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by a Minority MP, Kweku Agyemang Manu.
Mr. Baako’s claims, comes as a surprise to many that a committee which scrutinizes public spending and also question irregularities in the public sector, would be seeking funding from an organization, that will soon appear before the committee.
The ace Jerry John Rawlings pal, who brandished the said letter in the studios of Joy FM during last Saturdays Newsfile Programme, did not mention the signatory and the date on the said letter.
The 1992 Constitution frown on conflict of interest situations, and Mr. Baako’s claims are raising suspicions that the Committee is likely to be compromised especially, when it is about to investigate the controversial Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), particularly its ¢150 billion guinea fowl partnership with Asongtaba Cottage Industry, a sister company to RLG.
The PAC in recent times dealt among issues of judgment debts paid to Construction Pioneers (CP), Waterville Holdings (BVI), the GH¢51million Woyome saga among others.
Several efforts by The Herald to speak to the Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Mr. Jones Kugblenu, to ascertain the veracity of Mr. Baako’s claim proved futile.
Mr. Baako who is a regular panelist on Joy FM’s news analysis programme “News Files” cried last Saturday more than the bereaved, rubbishing Members of Parliament (MPs) including, KT Hammond for reading ill motives into RLG’s free boreholes offer to the lawmakers.
Openly brandishing a document in the studio of the Joy FM and Multi TV, Mr. Baako said, PAC recently wrote a letter to RLG demanding financial support to embark on a foreign trip, and questioned whether that sponsorship could also not have compromised the MPs in the performance of their duties in protecting the public purse.
He described KT Hammond and Dan Afenyo Markins’ position that, RLG was seeking to compromise the 275 MPs with boreholes to whitewash the controversial SADA Guinea Fowl project, led by Asongtaba Cottage Industry, as “illogical”.
Mr. Baako, as usual knew more than the rest of his colleague discussants.
He expressed disappointment at the development saying, the company could not have bribed the legislators with the gesture, as the decision to provide the boreholes in all 275 Constituencies commenced long before news about RLG’s sister company Asongtaba, got embroiled in the Guinea Fowl saga.
Few months ago, Parliamentarians raised hell over ¢150 billion discovery that SADA had partnered Asontaba to rear guinea fowls on a large scale, as well as, providing ready market for already reared Guinea Fowls for peasant farmers by buying the birds from them.
The project has been struggling to see the light of day as there is next to nothing by way of infrastructure in the three Northern Regions to show.
While managers of the company struggle to explain the whereabouts of the ¢150 billion, with sections of the public expressing total disgust about the situation, Mr. Baako uncharacteristically took a different turn, saying, he could not go the way of the taxpayers, but would want to wait for the audit report, before arriving at a conclusion that the money had been wasted.
Mr. Baako, spoke so eloquently in favour of the company to the utter surprise of many listeners, suggesting that the company was in his good books.
On the new borehole episode, Mr. Baako continued that he would be surprised if the MPs got compromised by the gesture, while investigating the dealings of SADA and Asontaba Cottage Industry, particularly after PAC had written to RLG, demanding sponsorship from the same company.
The boreholes which were expected to have been drilled at any location of the MPs choice, according to Mr. Baako, were requested by the MPs at the lunch of RLG’s Foundation last year by the then Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama.
He maintained that discussions had gone on between RLG and Parliament since last year adding, that it was during the latter stages of the discussions that RLG wrote to the Clerk of Parliament, Emmanuel Ayimadu, asking the MPs to select locations to drill the boreholes.
An emotionally incensed Mr. Baako, insisted that the MPs made the free boreholes request under RGL’s “Water for All Initiative”, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba, who also discredited the bribery allegation buttress his point by claiming that RLG could not have held that motive because, it was that same company that recently distributed laptops to the 275 MPs.
However, the MP for Okere, Dan Botwe, through a text message to host of News File, Samson Lardy Ayinini, disputed the claim by Mr. Amaliba, as untrue.
Another member of the NDC and a former Chief of Staff, Nana Ato Dadzie said, the whole arrangements smacks of an attempt to bribe the Honourable members and advised RLG to withdraw it completely.
A former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, quoted a portions of the 1992 Constitution, which states that no officer should put himself in a position where he would be found in a conflict of interest, as the MPs accepting the boreholes at the time they are about to probe Asongtaba Cottage Industry, amount to a conflict of interest.
Lawyer Ayikoi Otoo, advised RLG to organize itself and move into the various Constituencies and solicits ideas from elders, Chiefs and Assembly members on the appropriate place to sink the boreholes, instead of going to the MPs.
He completely disagreed with Mr. Baako, that the MPs could not be compromised.
Mr. Baako has been described as a close friend of the RLG and its owners, and to him no wrong- doing comes from them in the face of overwhelming and nagging questions.