Chief Of Staff Fingered In Bribery Scandal Involving Parliament’s Appointment Committee
A new book by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, titled The President Ghana Never Got, alleges that the Chief of Staff’s office at Jubilee House has been channeling funds to Parliament’s Appointment Committee to accelerate the approval process for ministerial nominees.
The book claims that this practice of financial inducement has been in place across multiple administrations, beginning with the presidency of John Evans Atta Mills.
According to Manasseh, the Chief of Staff has regularly sent money to members of the Appointment Committee during the vetting process.
One example cited in the book dates back to 2017, when Mahama Ayariga and other members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accused Boakye Agyarko, a then-ministerial nominee, of attempting to bribe the Appointment Committee.
However, these allegations were denied by committee members, including Muntaka Mubarak, a key figure on the committee, who claimed that any money received by the committee did not originate from Agyarko but from Jubilee House.
Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Chair of the Appointment Committee since 2017, acknowledged that the committee had received money from the Chief of Staff but denied facilitating payments from ministerial nominees.
Osei-Owusu recounted instances where nominees approached him with offers of money, but he insisted that any such dealings should occur directly between the nominees and committee members, refusing to act as an intermediary.
In the book, Osei-Owusu expressed surprise at being implicated in the distribution of money from Boakye Agyarko to Muntaka Mubarak.
Excerpt from Osei-Owusu’s Account:
“When I asked the 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, about the money from the Chief of Staff to the committee, he confirmed it. Mr. Osei-Owusu, who has chaired the Appointments Committee since 2017, said the perception of payments to committee members was so prevalent that ministerial nominees often approached him offering money.
“Before the (2017) vetting started, I discussed with the Majority Leader that I could not accept money on behalf of the members. If a nominee wanted to give money, they should deal directly with that person.
“Because of this perception, some nominees came to me, asking if there was something they should do. When I said no, they persisted, saying, ‘Are you sure? It’s me, you can trust me. We want to be generous to the committee.’
I told them to deal directly with the person they wanted to be generous to.
“He said he was surprised that despite refusing to mediate payments from nominees, he was accused of receiving money from Agyarko and passing it to Muntaka to influence NDC members to approve the nominee.
However, he admitted making intermittent calls to the Chief of Staff when committee members approached him with demands for ‘motivation.’”
