Joe Ghartey Committee Report..."Thorough Work, Deep, Detailed" - Nana Boakye

Deputy Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Henry Nana Boakye says no one should rubbish the report by the Joe Ghartey Committee on the bribery allegation against Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.

Following the Committee's report which was laid before Parliament on Wednesday, March 29, the Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga who accused the Minister of bribing the Parliamentary Appointments Committee after his vetting, was asked to render an unqualified apology to the House.

He was found to be in contempt of Parliament and the Committee recommended he apologized to Parliament to purge himself.

It also recommended that Mr. Ayariga be reprimanded by the Speaker of the House in accordance with Section 35 of the Parliament Act 1965 (Act 300).

But there have several criticisms about the report since it was laid with a seasoned journalist Kwesi Pratt and a former President Staffer Adu Asare punching holes in the report.

They found the Committee's work dissatisfactory and hurriedly done to bring closure to the case instead of justice being served.

To them, a proper work could have been done by the Committee if it had welcomed accounts from other witnesses to the case - Sampson Ahi and Nii Lantey Vanderpuye - all members of the House.

Commenting on the issue on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Nana Boakye found the Committee’s work to be thoroughly done and stressed that it's unfair for anyone to claim they did a shoddy work.

He explained that the conclusions and recommendations in the Committee's report were unanimously made by all members on the Committee for which MPs of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are a part of.

According to him, the critics would have made sense if the composition of the Committee was suggestive of any form of bias, but not in the case where two NDC MPs were on board and unanimously agreed to the report.

Nobody should try to rubbish this Committee. This is thorough work, deep, detailed. It came on the TV. We watched it. I saw Ayariga’s demeanor…The interesting thing is that there are two NDC MPs are on it (the committee) and their conclusions were unanimous. So, how can someone come to tell me that they didn’t do their work well?”

Nana Boakye however believed the apology by Mr. Ayariga wasn't enough to purge him and therefore called on the authorities to revoke his membership in the House.

When you (Mahama Ayariga) went throwing allegations about on Radio Gold, you spoke with all your might. But when you were called before the Committee, you were speaking like a child. Why? Is it fair?”