Bagbin Cleared

Members of Parliament (MPs) have cleared the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, of wrongdoing after he had claimed that some parliamentarians receive bribes to do the bidding of groups and individuals. This took place after months of investigation into the allegation by a special committee of the House. Although parliament is yet to be made formally aware of the findings that cleared Mr. Bagbin, the committee concluded that the Majority Leader did nothing wrong. Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, said so far as the House was concerned, Bagbin�s allegation was no more an issue. �He met each person [Parliamentarian] one-on-one and he met us as a group to explain what he meant and I think we understood the angle he came from,� Mr. Nitiwul told Joy News. The Deputy Minority Leader said the committee that investigated the matter thought Mr. Bagbin�s utterances came out wrongly. �He was saying that it�s difficult as a human being to say that he knows every MP and can vouch that they don�t take bribes or they don�t take [transportation] from organisations�, Nitiwul clarified. Mr. Alban Bagbin, National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Nadowli/Kaleo, told an audience at a STAR-Ghana sponsored workshop in March that �MPs are Ghanaians and there is evidence that some MPs take bribes and come to the floor and try to articulate the views of their sponsors.� His claim angered his colleague MPs who raised it on the floor, compelling the Speaker, Doe Adjaho, to direct the leadership to investigate it. But before Mr. Bagbin�s confirmation as the leader of the NDC Majority last week Wednesday, the MPs� anger seemed to have subsided. In defence of Mr. Bagbin�s comments, Mr. Nitiwul said the Majority Leader was talking about lobbying and not bribery. �Lobbying in itself is not a bad thing,� he posited. He explained that �organisations are forced to go through MPs when they believe in a cause they think should come before parliament because there are no professional lobbyists.� Using the Right to Information Bill as an example, he said many organisations constantly used parliamentarians for the bill to be debated on the floor of the House. But Vitus Azeem, Head of the anti-corruption group, Ghana Integrity Initiative, says it does not matter whether parliament clears Mr. Bagbin or not. Mr. Azeem said on �Top Story� on Joy FM Thursday that �what matters is whether parliament did a good investigation� -something he was doubtful of. He suggested that an independent body should have looked into the matter instead of a committee set up by parliament itself.