The Hon. Joe Ghartey Committee Must Call Other Witnesses
The Center for Progressive Governance (CenProG) welcomes Parliament's decision to constitute an adhoc committee to investigate the attempted bribery of members of the Appointment's Committee by Hon Boakye Agyarko using the chairman of the committee as a conduit.
We had earlier made a call that for the sake of the integrity of the Appointment's Committee of Parliament, Hon. Joe Osei Owusu should have recused himself as chairman until such time an investigation is conducted to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the claims.
CenProG therefore welcomes Parliament's decision for a committee to ascertain the veracity of the allegations eventhough the Chairman of the Appointment's Committee refused to recuse himself.
We are however not enthused that the Ad hoc committee chaired by Hon. Joe Ghartey have decided to call just four witnesses eventhough there are several key actors in this allegation.
CenProG believes the composition of the witness list is seemingly biased against those making the allegations since three of them (Hon Joe Osei Owusu, Hon Muntaka Mubarak and Hon Boakye Agyarko) who are key actors and against whom the allegations have been made are on record to have claimed innocence. This therefore leaves only Hon. Mahama Ayariga as a lone voice on the witness list and this we believe is against the law of natural justice.
At the very least, two other Members of Parliament namely Hon. Alhassan Suhuyini and Hon. Okudjetu Ablakwa have been vocal in their defense of the fact that there was indeed an attempted bribery in which they rejected and these two MPs jointly signed the petition with Hon. Mahama Ayariga presented to the Rt. Hon. Speaker for the composition of the adhoc committee.
CenProG is of the firm belief that to ensure a balanced and fair hearing, the Hon. Joe Ghartey committee should invite the two other MPs as witnesses to aid the process. Having three witnesses from the side that is alleging and having same number from the side that is defending will purge the committee of bias, mindful of the burden placed on this adhoc committee as to restoration and/or upholding of the integrity of the Legislative arm of Government.
Bearing in mind the terms of reference and the timeline for the conclusion of this probe, we believe that calling an extra two witness will in no way derail the process or unnecessarily prolong its sittings but rather help to come to the bottom of the matter.
CenProG therefore calls on the Ad hoc committee to as a matter of urgency invite Hon. Alhassan Suhuyini and Hon. Okudjeto Ablakwa to ensure a fair hearing.
God Bless our homeland Ghana and make it GREAT and STRONG.
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