Inquiry Into Vikileaks Is Part Of Corruption Fight - Minister

Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has said the ongoing investigation of former Deputy Communications Minister Victoria Hammah is part of government's attempt to fight corruption. According to Inusah Fuseini, the embattled deputy Minister was "referred" to the Financial Intelligence Centre to be investigated. He would however not say who made the referral but insisted the referral hinged on part of the content of the leaked tape in which the sacked deputy minister Victoria Hammah was heard nursing the ambition of making one million dollars before bowing out of politics. "You will hear opposition elements say that what the FIC is doing is not within their remit, not within their mandate; not in accordance with the provisions of the law. I believe the referral of the matter to FIC was premised ...on one fact which the minister said on the leaked tape that if she had one million in her account she can control people," he said on Joy FM's newsfile programme Saturday. He was discussing what has now been christened the Vikileaks scandal and the subsequent inquest by the Financial Intelligence Centre. Deputy Communications minister Victoria Hammah was sacked shortly after the content of a leaked tape was made public. Among other things, Hamah chided her colleague deputy Minister, Rachel Appoh, who was in some rift with her own boss, Nana Oye Lithur at the Gender ministry. She also alleged Nana Oye Lithur was influential in getting victory for the ruling party in the election petition. After sacking her, the FIC, a statutory body, began a probe into her finances by asking all banks to provide information on her accounts. FIC has come under a barrage of criticism for instituting the investigations. Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative Vitus Azeem described the action by FIC as baseless especially when she had not been accused of money laundering. But it has emerged through the discussion on newsfile the FIC was mandated to begin the inquest as part of measures to fight corruption. When probed further to disclose who made the referral to FIC, Inusah Fuseni was evasive, insisting rather that the investigation is part of action to fight corruption. He said the government takes more serious the comment on the one million dollars than the reference to Nana Oye Lithur's alleged role in the election petition. "We place value on that [one million] because that is in tandem to fighting corruption. You want to know if that persons has got those intentions; whether those intentions have been actualised or whether steps are being made to actualise those intentions and to take the necessary action to fight corruption," he said.