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General News of Thursday, 10 December 2015
Source: Myjoyonline.com
Adansi Asokwa MP KT Hammond
Adansi Asokwa New Patriotic Party (NPP) legislator, K.T. Hammond, says his push for a probe into payment of some monies to some former staff of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) including former Chief Executive, Tsatsu Tsikata, is not borne out of malice.
“Let me put on record that if for nothing at all he lectured me at the University and I think that I benefit a lot to make me the lawyer that I am,” the MP said on the Super Morning Show Thursday.
KT Hammond also said suggestions by Mr. Tsikata that he is diverting attention from himself in a government White Paper directive to Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) to investigate his role in the sale of a GNPC drillship is also false.
Mr. KT Hammond alleged that Mr. Tsikata had been paid more than a million cedis – money he said the ex-GNPC boss did not deserve.
Three other former employees at GNPC – Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye (Ag. Chief Executive); Mr. Benjamin Dagadu (Field Evaluation and Development Manager); and Ms. Esther Cobbah (Public Affairs Manager), he claimed, benefited from the payment.
The Corporate Affairs Department of the GNPC later issued a press release saying, “The Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has approved the payment of ex-gratia to four former employees of the Corporation, comprising of two former Chief Executives and two Managers.”
KT Hammond, who is also a former Deputy Energy Minister, insisted the four did not deserve any payments at all.
But Mr. Tsikata says the MP is not only wrong but is also trying to divert attention from a directive by government that he should be investigated.
Responding to Mr Tsikata’s claims, KT Hammond said “I am clear in my mind that no official at EOCO will ever invite me for any interview,” he said.
A government White Paper on the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Payments from Public Funds Arising from Judgment Debt and Other Related Matters, directed EOCO to investigate Mr. Hammond.
“I am not sure whether Mr Tsikata has found the time to read the Apau report or the White Paper on it,” KT Hammond insisted, “the report did not make any adverse findings about KT Hammond”.
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