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The General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has brought the intense debate about the controversial sale of state-owned Merchant Bank Ltd to the fore once again, in an attempt to parry serious allegations by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentarians that national officers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have a hand in the sale of the bank. For Mr. Asiedu Nketia, the matter would be brought to a proper closure if begging questions are adequately answered by stakeholders of the transaction. Last week, the Minority in Parliament accused the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Edward Doe Adjaho, of being biased and not serving the interest of the people of Ghana by blocking the Minority�s attempt to institute a Parliamentary investigation into the controversial sale of the state-owned Merchant Bank to Fortiz Equity Fund for GH�90 million. In a five-point query issued as part of a statement on Friday January 10, 2014, the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said, �The good people of Ghana eagerly await answers to these questions to put the Merchant Bank issue at rest.� The NDC wants questions about conflict of interest on the part of President Mahama, President Mills or any other NDC government official in the granting, disbursement or recovery effort of Merchant Bank of any loan to Engineers and Planners or any of the other leading loan defaulters to be properly addressed. According to the NDC General Secretary, that question is �the main reason why the leadership of NDC got interested in this debate.� Another issue that the NDC believes would put the matter to rest is, how Merbank got to its current predicament, necessitating a sale which critics say had no value for money. ��We cannot be dealing with the symptoms of the disease without bothering about the cause,� Mr. Asiedu Nketia�s statement read. He also asked if the sale was in the best interest of the workers of Ghana and the nation at large such that nothing else could have been done. �If not, is there a better way of dealing with the bank than that which is contained in the Fortiz Deal?� the statement queried. The statement also asked for explanations about whether the representatives of workers (contributors of SSNIT) were involved in all the Board decisions of SSNIT on the sale. President Mahama, late last week, held a public forum to address several pressing issues including the Merchant Bank saga, perhaps in response to what the NDC leadership describes as questions �begging for answers�. The Cause Merbank�s woes have been mostly blamed on its huge bad debt portfolio, particularly from E&P owned by Ibrahim Mahama, the younger brother of President John Dramani Mahama. E&P owes the bank, formed with pension funds of Ghanaian workers, an amount estimated at over GH�60million since 2007, a debt which forms 30 percent of the bank�s bad debt portfolio. The President, at a media encounter and in an answer to a question, advised all who owed the bank including his brother to service their debts. The liquidity crisis that faced the bank forced its majority shareholder, the state-owned Social Security and National Investment Trust (SSNIT) to offer it for sale. However, the entity that won the bid was a hurriedly composed Equity Fund- Fortiz, whose principals are alleged to have strong links with the ruling NDC. Curious Choice Several bidders including the multi-billion dollar banking giant, First Rand of South Africa, Fidelity Bank in Ghana and Ghanaian owned UT Bank, were all turned down. The sale has attracted intense controversy, with parliamentarians from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) calling for a thorough investigation into what it believes to be an �insider trading�. The controversy has led to a pending lawsuit filed by the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA), an advocacy group that believes that the country is not getting value for money from the transaction, especially when the pension manager, SSNIT, is not getting anything from the deal. Andrew Awuni, the Executive Director of CFA, described the deal as fraudulent, dragging 13 people to an Accra Commercial High Court, including SSNIT, which it believes, deliberately made it too easy for Fortiz to take over its interest in Merchant Bank.