Chairperson of Parliament’s Vetting Committee, Bernard Ahiafor, has said members of the Committee have never taken bribe or gifts from any nominees who appears before the Committee.
Mr Ahiafor said that, since assuming leadership of the Vetting Committee, neither he nor the committee had received money from any nominee who appeared before it.
He stressed that the committee had maintained a clear position against receiving money from nominees appearing before it.
“So far as I am concerned as a Chairperson of the Vetting Committee, I admonish all the nominees that nobody should come to them with issues relating to money and they’ll pass it to anybody,” he said on TV3’s Daily Brief, Friday, September 4.
“Ever since I assumed the position as the Chairman of the Vetting Committee, we’ve not taken anything from any nominee that appear before us,” he stated.
His comments follow the circulation of a purported memorandum allegedly signed by Deputy Minority Leader and Asokwa MP Patricia Appiagyei, in which she is said to have returned GH¢70,000 allegedly given to her by Majority Chief whip in connection with the vetting of two ministerial nominees and three Supreme Court nominees.
Mr Ahiafor welcomed the OSP’s decision to investigate the matter and urged the anti-corruption agency to establish the facts surrounding the allegation.
“The OSP should probe into the matter and let’s see what will happen,” he added.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor has since commenced a preliminary investigation into the authenticity of the document, the source of the alleged funds and the purpose for which the money was purportedly provided.
The OSP has also invited Ms Appiagyei to assist with the investigation.
The OSP said the contents of the purported memorandum raised concerns because it allegedly cast doubt on the source of the funds and suggested “that it had the hallmarks of extortion of the nominees.”
Meanwhile, Second Deputy Minority Whip and Weija-Gbawe MP Jerry Ahmed Shaib has dismissed the allegation, insisting that there was “no truth whatsoever” in claims that Ms Appiagyei received a GH¢70,000 ‘gift’.
He said the Deputy Minority Leader was upset by the reports and did not know the source of the alleged document or a signature attributed to her.
“There is no truth whatsoever in that story. I have spoken particularly to my Deputy Minority Leader who has been very upset with the seeming whatever is going round. She doesn’t even understand it and she is very upset,” Jerry Ahmed Shaib said on Friday, September 4.
